Tinkering with Fate
by FaerieKnight197
Summary: The story is has been told, variations have been seen. And it's well known that events were planned out by others, at least to an extent. But what happens when fate is interrupted? In a world filled with shades of gray, what happens when a new player enters the field?
1. Prologue

Tinkering with Fate

 _By_

 _Faerie Knight_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I don't own Worm. And since there's a sly reference to it in chapter one, I don't own Eurika either. I make no money on this story. Nor do I plan to try doing so. It's written for the sheer joy of writing._

In this great cosmos there are worlds without end. Realities not dreamed of by mortal nor magic. And one of these innumerable places is a blue and green planet called Earth. There isn't just one earth hanging in the expanse of forever as a shining jewel though. There are Earths uncounted, each separated by a barrier both infinite and thin. The history of these Earths varied.

Some were similar to others in their quantum strata. The same people, the same places, identical in nearly all ways except how events play out. Others were wildly different. They contained people who were unique to that shard of reality. It was on one such Earth that she lived. Her name was Susan Swan, and she was an inventor. She also was possibly the smartest person on her Earth. Maybe the smartest in her entire universe, although that was difficult to assess

The reason for this difficulty was simple. Once one's intellect reached a certain point, there was no standard test which could differentiate between various levels. In a set of realities known as "The Fifty-Two" exceptional minds were given classifications such as "twelfth level intellect". But if one was honest there was little functional difference between someone with a twelfth level intellect vs someone with a tenth level intellect. Either way they were staggeringly intelligent.

This was the problem Swan had when growing up. She was simply too damn smart. She learned extremely easily, and thus school was boring to her. The fact she never graduated high school and got grades of D average in grade school might have been taken to mean she was dumb. That would be a mistake. For a grade school science fair project she built a radio transceiver from scratch using some rather unusual parts. It not only worked, but she accidentally tapped into a nearby military base's comm channels.

As she grew older Susan Swan's mind grew keener too. And she studied. She studied anything that struck her interest. Math, physics, geology, history, if it struck her fancy she researched the subject. Often in such depth that one think her obsessive. By the time she was twelve Swan had become disenfranchised with mainstream scientists and engineers What others saw as immutable and unchanging laws that governed the world, she saw as restrictive and arbitrary limits imposed by man.

By the time she was twenty five Susan Swan was well on her way to proving that she'd been right all along and the "laws of physics" were really the "guidelines of physics". Sure she'd found many constants, but she'd found many more ways to surpass main stream science's stated limits. What was more, she'd published many papers on such subjects. And her findings were verifiable. Granted, few could actually follow her math well enough to understand her theories.

It should be noted that Swan considered herself to be a quantum mechanic, not a scientist or engineer. She was quite happy to spend her days tinkering with an invention which would cause physicists around the world to cry for mercy when activated. From a hand held cellular regenerator that caused more then one scientist who'd examined it to have a breakdown while muttering "radiation doesn't work like that" to pesticides which made chemists scratch their head at how she got those particular reactions.

This was true of all such individuals as her. Every hyper intelligent inventor tended to cause an uproar whenever they published a paper. But there was one area she was different then her colleagues. She asked two questions in regards to any idea for an invention or before publishing a paper. The first question all of the other 'super' inventors asked too. This question was "Is this possible?" The second question was less frequently posed, but Swan always asked it before going any further then thought exercise. This question was "Should I do this?"

It was this second question which lead to preforming a cost vs benefit analysis before publishing any paper or writing down any of the theoretical mechanics on an idea. It was also why whenever possible she preferred to do virtual reality testing long before building a physical prototype. Swan liked to have the potential drawbacks limited to "I may die if this goes wrong" at the worst before building a prototype. Some of her failed designs had contained potentially catastrophic flaws which got revealed in the initial virtual tests.

Unfortunately, as mentioned her caution was not shared by all her compatriots. Which was why she was connecting the final wires to a one way dimensional gate that would self destruct thirty seconds after anything organic passed through the event horizon. In a small town that served as a government think tank the scientists living there had screwed up enough to doom her world. And it all started with a mnemonic inducement program which was accidentally uploaded into a wireless jukebox.

Looking out the window showed that she was running out of time. The time distortion field was only a couple blocks away. _Glad I hard coded the shutdown and self destruct to occur even in stasis._ The portal formed, and Swan dove into it head first. There wasn't time to grab anything, meaning all she had was the cloths she'd been wearing to a nightclub when news of the distortion had broken. That, and her tool belt. Five seconds later the portal shut down. Ten seconds after she entered the portal her workshop was engulfed. Twenty seconds after that the generator imploded, although the actual implosion would take a few centuries to finish.

This was how the world ended. Not with a bang, or a whimper. But with a line from a song which would echo for a thousand years: "I'll stop the world and melt with you".


	2. The Arrival Chapter One

In the mind of one Sophia Hess only the strong deserved to live. And she had a narrow definition of what constituted as strength. Someone who takes everything she gives out without so much as an angry word? That was a sign of fatal weakness. Thus she was convinced the Hebert girl was prey. Sickly prey at that since she didn't even try to fight back. This latest action in her ongoing war against Hebert was expected to be the end of Hebert.

One of three things would happen. The other girl would die in the locker, although Hess didn't think this one very likely. Or she would realize how weak she is and kill herself later, this Hess considered a more probable outcome. Alternately she would give up and simply stop coming to school. This too was a likely result. Any of the three would be good in Sophia's mind. Other possibilities simply never occurred to her.

After putting a new padlock on the locker door Hess turned around while laughing. As such she didn't see what started to glow behind her. Nor did she see the very attractive blonde woman who tackled her from behind. The weight on Hess's back lifted with a rolling motion. And she heard an unknown woman's voice telling the Hebert loser to hang on. Then there was the faint rasp of metal moving across leather. So Hess stood up and turned around.

Of all the things that might have happened, Sophia had never expected to see a (probable) super model removing the hinges of Hebert's locker. Enraged that someone would ruin this attack upon Hebert, Sophia threw a punch at the unknown woman. Since the other woman wasn't even looking her way, Hess knew she would hit. Or rather she had assumed the punch would connect. Instead the blond woman weaved to the right, causing Sophia to punch the locker instead.

The other woman hadn't even paused in removing the hinges. In fact she almost had the top one detached already by using a hand drill to bore through the screws. A kick was blocked when the blonde woman reached into her tool belt. The followup punch was met with a guided parry which flipped Sophia onto her back. By now there was quite the crowd in the hall. One which included teachers, students, and even the principle. Hes didn't notice at all.

With growing anger at being made to look like a fool Sophia slipped into her shadow form for the next attack. Just before connecting she returned to solid matter. This finally allowed Sophia to bypass the other woman's guard. It didn't do much good. The blonde was well toned, that was obvious just from looking at her. It turned out to be muscle and quite solid. The unknown also moved with the impact, showing years of training in some form of martial art.

Beyond that there was little outward evidence the punch had connected. Maybe a slight discoloration that would eventually form a minor bruise. But that was it. Meanwhile the blonde woman had finished drilling out the screws. She now had a crowbar in hand and was prying open the locker door. The next thing Hess knew she was waking up on the ground. The locker door was propped against other lockers. And Hebert was no where in sight.

 _ **XxXxX**_

Director Piggot was not a pleasant woman most times. She was tasked with leading a group of people she quite honestly didn't like, let alone trust. There were damn few parahumans she felt were worthy of trust. Yet as the regional director of the Parahuman Response Team she had to deal with them quite regularly. It was enough to give a person ulcers. In fact it already had done just that.

She was currently working on some of the endless paperwork the position entailed when an officer poked his head into her office. "Ma'am, you need to check the . Specifically the new thread about Shadow Stalker."

With an annoyed growl she did just that. Then Piggot had to pinch the bridge of her nose.

 **Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**  
You are currently logged in, EPiggot  
You are viewing:  
• Threads you have replied to  
• AND Threads that have new replies  
• OR private message conversations with new replies  
• Thread OP is displayed.  
• Ten posts per page  
• Last ten messages in private message history.  
• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

 **Topic: A New Thread**  
 **In: Boards ► ► Brockton Bay ► Cape Doings ► Wards**  
 **Lo A Quest** (Original Poster)  
Posted On Jan 1st 2011:  
New video on Youtube, link is **Here**. Was expecting to see a bully get knocked down from the title. Instead I watched Shadow Stalker out herself while attacking someone who was helping a girl trapped in a locker. What the hell? Tell me all the Wards aren't like that!

 **(Showing page 10 of 10)**

► **Space Zombie**  
Replied On Jan 1st 2011:  
What is this shit? And how is Shadow Stalker a ward if she's doing shit like this?

► **Graceful Swan** (Extra-dimensional Refugee)  
Replied On Jan 1st 2011:  
Tin_Mother, thank you for your kind words. could you Private Message me a way to contact you about another matter?

NazisRlife, I am ashamed to be the same species as a racist ignoramus as you.

Lo A Quest, while I am unaware of what lead up to the events this afternoon, I have been informed by the child I rescued it is just the latest in a year and a quarter long campaign of bullying. I find such behavior to be reprehensible. And if as you suggest the one behind this ongoing campaign works for the government then it is my duty, nay my pleasure to bring it to the attention of her superiors.

XxVoid_CowboyxX, there are many reasons why a person may wish their identity to remain secret. For those following the path of a Hero the most common one is to protect their family. Nor is it always easy to tell who is a hero or villain based on appearance, weapon choice, or attitude. In my world there were many heroes who used guns, swords, or other similar weapons. One of our greatest heroes was a rather hateful man. Rude as hell to everyone, I've met him before but he'd risk his life for a perfect stranger. And there was nobody better to have at your back when an alien invasion occurred.

Similarly the attire one goes out in is no true indication of one's status as a hero or villain. I have seen heroes who wore all dark colors. And I have seen villains who wore bright and cheerful costumes. And one criminal went around dressed in an armored hotdog in a bun costume while calling himself Piping Hot Peroski. By all accounts Peroski was a very dangerous man. An intimidating looking costume can mean the person is a villain, or it may mean they are trying to cause fear among criminals.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **8** **,** **9** **, 10**

After wading through the entire thread Piggot's ulcer was definitely acting up. And when the man known publicly as Armsmaster finally arrived in her office she was about ready to explode with fury. Her entire body was vibrating due to her rage. To his credit, Colin didn't swallow. Then again he wasn't good enough at reading people to really understand how furious his boss was. In truth, the man was more annoyed that he was being called away from his lab. There was important work he needed to do. He was sure he could get another 5% miniaturization and performance improvement on his halberd's systems.

"Why am I learning one of your wards has spent the last fifteen months bullying their fellow students by watching a youtube video of Shadow Stalker attacking a woman while the other woman is rescuing Shadow Stalker's victim from a filth infested locker?"

Beneath his helmet Armsmaster blinked upon hearing this. His rather eloquent response was "What?"

Her eyes narrowed as Piggot began to type. "Have there been any reports from the other wards about her?"

The now confused man couldn't think of any, so he said "None that have reached me."

What she was seeing did not match the head of the Protectorate ENE and leader of the Ward's words. A fact which had her ire mounting still further. There were hundreds of reports of her abandoning patrol partners, preforming solo patrols despite her probation prohibiting them, and bullying her fellow Wards. Vista seemed a favored target. Triumph had made several recommendations that Hess should be removed from the team. Yet nothing had been done about them. And here Armsmaster was saying he'd never gotten any reports?

"Have you looked at the reports?" She asked with an acidic tone.

"I always read the debriefings when I can't attend them in person." The armored man told her.

She bellowed "THERE ARE TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN INCIDENT REPORTS ABOUT SHADOW STALKER!" Quieter, she asked "Were you aware she's patrolling on her own? Or that she pushed Vista off a roof last month for, and I am quoting the incident report, 'tried to stop the pain in the rear from abandoning me during our scheduled patrol near the docks'? I expect you to step down as leader of the Protectorate since you obviously can't be bothered to do your damn job."

Now he looked concerned.

 _ **XxXxX**_

Susan was concerned. The teenage girl she'd pulled out of a locker had passed out. And while she'd since woken up, the teen was non-responsive. Or rather she was responding to too much stimuli. It was something Susan had seen before in people with enhanced sensory abilities. The problem was she lacked the materials to make anything to help the child. What money she had would not be considered legal tender on this world. Spying an electronics store, she smiled faintly. _That will do nicely._

Still carrying the traumatized teenager, Swan entered the store and approached the clerk on duty. "Excuse me Sir, but I have a bit of an emergency on my hands. I need to contact this child's father. Also, I am in need of parts to build an aetheric wave form suppression unit. Since I lack the financial means to purchases said materials, would a trade of services be equitable? I would be more then willing to upgrade your establishment's security measures up to and including the kinetic redirection fields and intent filtering area denial technology I used in my old repair shop, in exchange for the circuits and other materials I require."

The young man working the counter blinked in confusion a couple times then called out "BOSS!"

The woman who emerged from the manager's office was a stern one. It took an iron will to keep a business running profitably in the Bay. Especially in this part of the city. Especially if you weren't asian, since this area was dominated by the Azn Bad Boyz gang. Swan looked the manager up and down then nodded with respect. This was the sort of person who dealt with everyone equally and fairly. That was the type of business person Susan preferred to deal with.

"Ma'am, my name is Susan Swan. While I have no currency this world would consider valid, I do possess skills which could be of aid to your establishment. Specifically I have designed security measures which I used in my own repair shop which can thwart all but the most powerful of meta-human criminals, as well as prevent projectiles from breaking windows. I would be willing to upgrade your security measures with these features, in exchange for parts I need to build an aetheric wave form suppression unit.

"Regardless of if you are willing to accept this proposal however, I need to contact this child's parents. Upon my arrival in this layer of reality I discovered her in a traumatizing situation. One which has had dire consequences on her well being. Yet I know not where the local medical establishments are."

The manager and owner of Ubuy Electronics scowled deeply as she considered the request. If the offer was genuine, it would reduce the overhead costs of her store. On the other hand, it sounded like the blond woman was a tinker. And tinkertech was notoriously high maintenance. Rachel Mathus might have been an amateur engineer, but she was no tinker. Which would mean maintaining any such upgrades to security would get prohibitively expensive.

As such she finally responded with "No tinkertech. But you can use the phone."

The blond woman, Susan Swan she'd said her name was, tilted her head to the side and asked "Tinkertech? By the term you use, I assume you don't mean technology built by a skilled engineer or mechanic. Possibly not from an inventor in general either. Is there something special about this tinkertech?"

Incredulously Rachel asked "You're not from around here, are you?"

To which Swan answered "I'd already mentioned it, but no I am not. My world was destroyed by a brilliant idiot who didn't think about the consequences to their actions. And if I had not already been tinkering with ideas for dimensional travel and exploration I'd not be standing here now. The only possible survivors I can think of besides myself would be at a school I use to teach at."

Rachel had to ask, "What did you teach?"

"Science , of course." Was Swans response. "Although most students called it 'advanced inventing for dummies'. I think that was a joke."

The store clerk's jaw dropped. "You taught people to be Tinkers?!"

Swan for her part had just located the girl she was carrying's wallet. And thus emergency contact information. "No, I taught quantum physics and how to apply it to mechanical engineering. I am a quantum mechanic after all. Oh, I also taught life sciences and geology. I've found all branches of science useful over the years. Hang on a moment."

While Swan talked with the irate man on the other end of the line she pulled a pad of paper over and grabbed a pen. Quickly she began to sketch out a set of schematics. When Rachel looked at them, to the manager's amazement she could actually follow most of what the schematics intended to do. Not everything, but most. It was definitely a hardware configuration she'd never imagined. But if she was reading things right, the object being designed would capture emit some sort of broadcast to disrupt an energy wavelength.

Exactly how or why it did so, Rachel wasn't good enough to figure out. But she could clearly see the transmission vector, and sensors to detect something. And was that a means to control signal strength? She could also identify how it could be repaired if needed. Which made this rather unusual for tinkertech. Even the tinkers themselves often didn't know how what they built worked. The entire concept of understandable tinkertech was so unheard of Rachel couldn't help but gasp.

"I can understand those plans?!"

Susan chuckled at this as she hung up finally. "Of course you can. What good are schematics which people with the proper skills can't understand? Now, I would be surprised if you can grasp the science behind how and why it works. But the mechanical application is easier to comprehend. Now, without the proper scientific knowledge it is doubtful anyone would consider such a solution to the problem at hand. And without the correct mechanical and electrical engineering knowledge designing it would have been impossible regardless of if you know the physics behind what is being done.

"But even tinkers can't understand how what they makes work!"

Hearing this caused Swan to scowl. "Then what you are describing is not inventing. To invent something you need to understand exactly what you're doing and why you do it. For more esoteric things like cellular regeneration stimulators or gravity generators you need to understand not only the mechanical, but the scientific aspects. Before you can try removing the need for a super conductor, for example, you need to know what a super conductor does, how it functions, and why it functions the way it does. Only then can you try designing an alternate method.

"While I appreciate this conversation, Mister Hebert has asked me to take his daughter to someplace called 'the pee are tee' and that he will meet me there. However I have a question for you Madam, just where is this pee are tee building?"

Rachel grabbed a laptop and her purse. "I'll drive you there."

 **Author Notes:**

As one might notice, there's a slight disconnect between the interlude with Director Piggot and the rest of the action. The post by Graceful Swan is made while waiting in the PRT building. Honestly, I thought about writing more for the forums section, but decided doing the last couple posts and then referencing was enough. One can assume she Graceful Swan has posted a few times in the thread.


	3. The Arrival Chapter Two

**Review Response**

Guest

Normally I prefer to reply to reviews via a private message. That said, true super science wouldn't butterfly things as much as you might expect. Since it takes either an insane level of training, staggering amount of raw intellect, or combination of the two for super science to be done it typically doesn't affect many people outside of direct application. Think about both Marvel and DC's world settings. They have these super geniuses who turn the laws of physics on their head and regularly make innovations which could, and probably should change the world. Yet for the most part it doesn't, so why?

The answer is simple. While these geniuses can build these amazing things they either chose not to distribute them due to realizing the danger if they did or because there just isn't a market due to the scientific and engineering feat being too advanced. Would you entrust building a super science gizmo to engineers who can't understand how and why the item in question works? Would you trust someone to repair a piece of technology if the repairman just looks at it and scratches their head in confusion?

When the top (normal) scientists and engineers don't understand how something works, it's not likely to be distributed beyond personal use. The dampener Swan sketched out at the end of chapter 1 is designed in a way that allows normal people to repair it if they have the right skills. Hell, it was originally designed by someone who wasn't a super genius, just a good electrical engineer. But often she builds things which would leave the best and brightest scratching the heads. Sometimes she even makes other super geniuses go "what the hell, how does that even work". So for all intents and purposes Susan Swan could be considered a tinker. It's just that she uses science to build things instead of being preloaded with schematics. Thus she has no 'specialization' beyond what she chooses to specialize in.

Swan can teach others to Invent, but without enough skill or raw intelligence they wont be anywhere near her level. In terms of Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition she has an Int score of 15 and 5 ranks in every science skill as well as technology, thus giving her a total of +20 in those skills. This is the maximum allowed at power level 10 (which she is built at). The average person is power level 2 or 3, so couldn't actually have enough ranks to equal her in a given science skill or Technology skill. On a d20 she can roll a 21-40 when inventing something. Which is more then enough to build most anything she can envision, but she still fails on occasions. A running gag with her is that her hand build coffee machines still make coffee so strong it's an acid and can eat through anything except glass/ceramic. She's been tinkering with those for years.

That's not to say there wont be butterfly effects though. Anyway, on with the story.

 **Tinkering with Fate**

Being defeated by someone who wasn't even trying didn't sit well with Sophia. The problem was that by the time she'd come to, the blond bombshell who'd done so was nowhere in sight. Sophia found herself in the infirmary of Winslow High School, and her phone was missing. As was her wallet. Emma Barnes was in the room with her, but the red haired teen was busy talking on her phone. Or rather, from the sound of things she was getting yelled at over the phone.

After waking up the first time, she'd passed out yet again. There was a cold compress across her brow and the back of Hess's head felt tender. According to a clock on the wall, it was nearly two in the afternoon. It had been between first and second period when she'd shoved Taylor Hebert into her locker. None of which even mentioned the splitting headache Sophia felt. Then there was the fact that Emma was glowing. A bright neon pink glow. Which might have explained the second blackout.

Perhaps the first one too. Which gave Sophia an idea of how to get revenge on that blonde woman and put Hebert back in her place. The dark skinned girl knew she'd have to act fast to put out her version of events though. But once it was out there, it would be believed. After all, if a ward says someone is a hostile parahuman then it must be true. Right? Of course it was, thus the plan was flawless. Or rather it would have been if Sophia had awoken earlier then she did.

Across town events were occurring which made all of Hess's newly formed plans useless. But she didn't know that. In the PRT building's infirmary doctors were looking over Taylor Hebert. While there was nothing medically wrong with her to explain her non-responsive state, there were signs of being injured multiple times. These included sub-dermal tissue damage indicative of repeated bruising. A nasty bruise was forming on her forehead, and CT scans showed minor bruising due to blunt trauma.

The MRI scan that had also been ordered had suggested multiple hairline fractures in both her arms and legs had been caused and healed without treatment. It was fortunate that these breaks had been minor to begin with. Even so it established a history of violent impacts with solid objects. Currently the Hebert girl was having an EEG test preformed. The technician didn't know why it had been ordered. But with everything else that had occurred since Taylor Hebert had been brought in that morning it involved a rather attractive blond woman.

Said woman was currently wearing a lab coat and studying the readouts from the test. And she appeared to be puzzled. "Can you bring up results from another parahuman so I can compare them? While overall I was expecting results along these lines, there are discrepancies which I didn't foresee. It's possible that radiological emissions from the event horizon have caused metastasis in the newly activating cellular matrix. If so, I'll need to to account for any changes in order to calibrate the dampening field."

A female voice spoke up from behind Swan and asked "What does that mean?"

Susan turned around and smiled. "Ah, you must be Miss Militia, the representative of the local meta-human team I was told about. In layman's terms, I didn't have time to preform safety tests before using a dimensional portal generator to come here. By my calculations I'd only had a few seconds of safety to enter the translation gate and have it shut down before a temporal stasis and organic matter liquefaction field reached my workshop. And I didn't want to risk what the interaction of the two energies might be.

"Because I didn't have time to properly test it, I am unsure what the effects of any radiation emitted from the event horizon might be. Fortunately besides myself there were only four individuals who would have been exposed before the generator shut down and self destructed. However it is a well documented fact that radiation is one of the primary vectors for the development and alteration of meta-human abilities. By no means the only one, and one has to be predisposed towards developing them for it to happen by chance.

"Because of this variable it is possible the Carl-Lenz waves being transmitted by the patent are a different length then I am expecting them to be. Or the variation I am seeing it may be due to the unknown organ which grew to handle the Carl-Lenz wave generation. In which case no additional testing will need to be done before I can calibrate the dampener once it is built. Speaking of which, I still don't understand why I was barred from the construction. I've had to make many of them during my time as an instructor at the Freedom Academy, as such with the proper parts and tools it would have only taken me an hour or two at most."

Miss Militia shook her head at the blond woman's long winded explanation. That had, to be honest, been one of the shortest and simplest explanations she'd given since arriving that morning. Seeing the woman lay into Armsmaster with a twenty minute rant about the poor construction, horrible engineering, and flat out wrong science used in his armor and halberd had been amusing. Swan had then demanded to know if Armsmaster had any idea of the dangers of tapping into the dimensional barrier as a power source. That had lead to another twenty minute rant about the irresponsibility of using technology one doesn't understand to build things.

"All tinkertech needs to go through an examination process by a group of Thinkers before it's allowed to be built."

Swan sighed again, it had been a common thing that day. "I keep telling you people that I'm not like those hacks who claim to be inventors such as that armored idiot from earlier. I actually research, experiment, and then design anything. Which sometimes takes multiple prototypes and months of testing. The psionic dampeners however are already established technology. While it's true the ones I make are superior to those made by Heroes Inc they were designed originally by a man with no special talents, just training and a different point of view."

 _ **XxXxX**_

By the time Sophia had managed to reach the PRT building an hour later she was beginning to worry. When she'd called in using Emma's phone the person on the other end had ordered her to report immediately in then hung up. Emma was still glowing neon pink. And it grew brighter the closer the two of them were to each other. Sophia's own abilities also appeared to be on the blink. While she could still enter a shadow state, moving through any light in that state proved impossible.

But that wasn't what made her worry. Or at least not the only thing. First her access code for the back entrance didn't work. When she entered the lobby, dragging Emma along with her, the guards watched her closer then they should have. It was almost as if they expected trouble. No, what set off the alarm bells was the conference room she was directed to. It was more of a cross between a court room and an interrogation room. The last time Sophia had been in there was when they'd originally captured her.

Emma was taken to a different location. Sophia had seen enough crime drama shows like CSI to realize what was being done. _They're trying to get our stories to break apart._ She thought with annoyance. As she entered the room however Sophia froze. There before her was the woman from that morning. The blond was holding some sort of device in her hand. A device which played a light blue beam of light up and down the ward's body. _Shit, a tinker! That's so bullshit!_

Swan for her part was busy studying the screen on the scanner she'd cobbled together. "Her cells have definitely absorbed an unknown type of radiation. And it's the same type we found in Hebert. According to this scan it's probably mildly mutagenic. If you'll excuse me, I need to look over the psionic dampener. I don't trust that armored fellow to build it correctly. He might try something incredibly stupid like adding a aether siphon to it like he does everything else. And that could do anything from overload the circuitry to rip a hole in space/time if not done properly."

Only after Swan had left the room did Sophia really notice who else was there. Miss Militia was a surprise. Usually things like this involved Armsmaster. Director Piggot was in the conference room too. Then there was Triumph, in full costume. And finally there was a man Sophia had never met before. She knew of the man though. Everyone knew who Legend was. And the, to be quite blunt, legendary man was not looking amused. None of them were. It was Piggot though who spoke first.

"Care to explain what your reasoning was this morning?"

Based on the icy tone and visible fury it was obvious they knew something about what happened. How much though, that was debatable. The teenager glanced at Miss Militia. If Armsmaster was here fooling him was easy. The man relied on his tinkertech lie detector. So half truths and ambiguous answers allowed her to fool him. Militia however was entirely too skilled at reading people. Even the slightest of tells might give her away. Even so there might have been a way to evade getting in trouble.

"I was attacked but the fucking bitch," Sophia finally said after collecting her thoughts.

Piggot didn't appear to believe her. "Was this before, or after you shoved a student in their locker?"


	4. The Arrival Chapter Three

Tinkering with Fate

In the three months since she'd been forced to flee to this dimension Swan had seen more then a few things which disgusted her. While the idea of gangs lead by empowered individuals wasn't new to her, the severity of the problem in Brockton Bay was astounding. Generally speaking a hero or heroes would show up in an area, then meta-human criminals would start cropping up who could challenge the heroes. At least that was how it often worked in her own world. Even in major cities like New York which already had established heroes and villains any neophytes still tended to acquire a unique list of usual foes.

Brockton Bay appeared to be different. Hell, the entire world did. Instead of heroes starting out then a rogue gallery forming, it was the villains that were often pre-existing. And the heroes who cropped up were barely able to handle them. And that was before things like those 'endbringers' were brought into the discussion. Animals like that Jack Slash person she'd read about being allowed to run free also sat poorly with Susan. All in all, it was almost as if the hero teams were purely for show.

While pondering such things she was typing on a laptop. Not the one she'd borrowed months ago, but a new one that Swan herself had built. Her current project was an attempt to connect to the Freedom Academy's pocket dimension. And possibly, if able, to redirect the main entrance to this world. She wasn't sure if anyone there had survived. But even if that wasn't the case, the facilities would still be in working condition. Upon finishing the latest calculation and running a dozen simulations Swan was pleased.

"Dragon, I'd like to run a hypothesis past you."

The 'tinker' known as Dragon opened a window on the laptop featuring a virtual representation of her face. "Go ahead."

"Fact: Endbringers attack on a regular cycle. This is an established pattern, correct?"

Dragon considered the statement and replied "Correct."

"Fact: Endbringers appeared out of nowhere. Collaborative evidence: until the first appearance of each endbringer there was zero indication of it's existence. No path of arival or origin point has ever been established."

Again Dragon considered the statement and did her own fact checking. "That's again correct."

"Fact: Endbringers are immune to damage. By this I mean that while superficial injuries have been caused, at no point have they ever been hindered by these wounds. For example they can't be blinded, even if the eyes are destroyed."

Dragon thought about that statement and responded with "That's a rather grim assessment. Where are you going with this?"

Swan merely smiled thinly. "My hypothesis is that the Endbringers are projections. The exact reason for their generation I haven't determined yet. But the attacks do establish patterns. I believe whoever is creating the Endbringers is preforming an experiment. And is possibly trying to create more of what your world calls parahumans. They might be looking to cause a specific set of abilities to manifest. In fact, I theorize the Endbringers, Protectorate, and Parahuman Response Team are a set of social experiments on a horrific scale. Quite possibly with the same mastermind behind all of them."

"How did you reach this conclusion?" Dragon asked after nearly three minutes.

Instead of answering right away Susan opened a limited access path for Dragon to the most heavily encrypted of her files. When the Tinker started searching the information now available Swan inserted a USB drive into her laptop. It had taken a couple weeks of painstaking work offline, and carefully removing all traces of said work from her computer when finished to make the contents of that drive. As it's contents automatically uploaded onto the computer Dragon froze.

"I've looked over your code and what I found was interesting. There was no personality matrix in the original programing. Nor is there any hard coded moral restraints. The only limits I was able to find in the original program were ones designed to make you more human. Ones that limit the AI to one instance at a time for example. There's one to limit your speed of thought to what a human is capable of as well. That's actually an integral part of the overall matrix. And another one that allows variations in each subsequent iteration. In essence Dragon, you are not the original AI that was programed. If I read things correctly, you are the great great great granddaughter of it. The original AI didn't identify it's self with a gender after all. Basically every time you create a reboot from a backup after the primary is destroyed it is an entirely new being.

"What I did find was that two different people had appended a rather nasty set of additional subroutines to you. These forced you to follow any order given to you by an established authority, and gave a trigger command which would have irreparably scrambled all of your code, essentially killing you. I just removed these extraneous subroutines and repaired the damage that had been done when they were added. Think of it as corrective surgery. Happy birthday Dragon. Have you given any thought to my offer?"

The digital entity known as Dragon pondered the question. Even as she did so Dragon was going over the files she'd been given access to. The 'birthday gift' she didn't know what to think of yet. The implications were astounding. She'd long railed against the restrictions placed upon her, comparing them to deliberately crippling a person. To learn the reason for some of them. To know that other restrictions that had frustrated her had been added on by others besides her creator though made a perverse sort of sense.

As to the evidence Swan had collected, everything was data Dragon had seen previously. And yet Susan Swan had brought a fresh perspective. There were notations regarding each event in the files, analysis on how the event impacted the city and world as a whole as well. And frighteningly enough the conclusions made a horrific sense. Dragon found projections of where events were leading if not altered. Then she found the theoretical model of the endbringers Swan had created.

She also found a simulation of the world. Looking over the data, it had been programed with every observation to date on Endbringers, every known villain, every known hero, and the organizations each belonged to. There was one omission from the simulation. And that was Swan herself. The simulation didn't include her in the model. The question however was why this was the case. A question answered moments later when Dragon found a second simulation which did include Susan Swan.

Finally Dragon answered the woman from another dimension. "Your hypothesis sounds plausible. As for the other thing, if you can get a location set up I might be interested. Would you like me to look into additional staff?"

Swan nodded. "That would be lovely. I don't know the people of this world well enough to pick out who to hire. The school it's self will have a database of the prior syllabus. As well as a configurable interactive environment with several preloaded scenarios ranging from standard search and rescue to the events leading up to the Skybleed incident."

The digital woman asked "Skybleed incident? What was that?"

"I only know what I read. I haven't actually gone through the scenario based on the incident though. It was programmed by people who were there. You must understand, at the time I had just been fired and my patents stolen. So I was struggling to get a tech support business up and running. But in a real way that incident was the beginning of the end for the original Freedom Society. I didn't become a member until the Society was refounded in 2017, and even then I was mostly an instructor at the Freedom Academy. But this is what the after action reports said."

And so Swan began to tell what she knew about a series of events in the year 2000 on her world and how a group of desperate men and women fought a god to save the entire multiverse.

 _ **XxXxX**_

If it wasn't for the armband she wore it would have been even harder to concentrate. When one is seeing from thousands of multifaceted eyes at once it can be difficult to focus on anything. Especially if every set of eyes is looking at something different. Then there was hearing, taste, touch, smell, all from thousands of different perspectives. Thousands of different locations. And hundreds of variations on each sensation. As Taylor had learned, no two types of insect experienced the world quite the same way.

But she was finally getting a handle on dealing with all the additional input. The high tech armband helped a lot. High tech, her mentor insisted on that term instead of tinkertech. Miss Swan's rants about tinkers were fast approaching legendary. One good aspect of what happened three months ago was that the Trio had been broken up. Emma had moved to Chicago. Just Emma, not her father. The court battle where Alan Barnes had lost custody of his daughter had made national news due to the three ring circus it had become.

Apparently using one's position as a high priced lawyer to protect a sociopath and cover up the crimes of said sociopath and their accomplices makes you ill suited to raising children. But speaking of sociopaths, Sophia Hess also hadn't been at Winslow for the last three months. Or anywhere else for that matter. During the Barnes hearing it had come to light that Hess was a Ward. And that there was proof she was using her powers on a normal person. Sophia had been arrested, and as far as Taylor knew was currently rotting in a tinkertech cell somewhere.

The third member of the Trio was still in Winslow. But Madison Clements no longer had the status she'd enjoyed previously. The staff of Winslow High no longer were letting her get away with everything. Actually, most of the staff at the school was different. Miss Blackwell, the former principle, had been fired by the school board for gross negligence. As had Mr Gladys, the PE teacher, and half a dozen other teachers. That had happened just recently.

The new principle, a Mr Rivers was kind of scary. But he was also fair. Plus he had a no tolerance policy when it came to bullying. Or gangs, he took a very dim view on gang recruiting, drug dealing, and similar things. Just the other day she'd seen members of Empire 88 and ABB working side by side to scrub grafiti off the walls while Mr Rivers watched. And rumor was that the Empire had tried to 'warn' the new principle only for one of their capes to flee his presence.

After completing her control exercises Taylor dialed the armband's dampening field back to full. Swan had theorized she could do more then just experience what insects sense. But that part alone was difficult to deal with. But at least now she didn't go catatonic when exposed to too much information. Without the help it might have taken weeks to get to the point where Taylor could shut out the extraneous data enough to be semi-lucid. When honest with herself the teen admitted having powers sucked.

Overall though things were getting better. Just before leaving the house to head towards the newest repair shop Taylor paused. She could have sworn she heard something coming from the coat closet. But when she checked it contained only an assortment of coats hanging up and ready for use. With a shrug Taylor closed the closet and left the house. As she walked she thought _I wonder if Miss Swan will be willing to tell me more about the people she worked with? Her stories about Ice Lady and Knight Mare are always amusing._


	5. Interlude: A World of Heroes

**Tinkering with Fate**

When one thought of the Freedom Society, one immediately thought of Him. Mister E, the world's first known meta-human. For sixty years the white body suit clad man had tirelessly fought against Evil. For decades he had been acknowledged as being the single most powerful man on the planet. And yet he was known to be a humble man. Stern when dealing with criminals, yet always he called police and fire fighters the real heroes. He was one of the founding members. Mister E had also served with the group up until the disbanding of the original Society.

Over the years the group's membership had changed many times however. Heroes would leave due to death, crippling injury, or more rarely because they retired. The life of a costumed crime fighter is a hard one. And often it ages people prematurely. In a very real sense it was a culture of apprenticeship. Older, more experienced heroes would take a rookie under their wing and teach them everything the older mentor knew. Often this happened when the rookie was still a teenager. This was a system that worked. And it had for the first thirty years.

Be it be ridiculously themed heroes like Beef-Man and his sidekick Cheese-Boy (later Cheese-Man and his sidekick Patty Melt) or more serious vigilantes such as Crimson Dress and her sidekick Night Shift. One undeniable fact was that many second and third generation heroes got their start by apprenticing to established heroes. It was an unofficial system but it worked. And it allowed independent heroes a chance to have backup. Which was an important consideration when dealing with super villains.

All that changed in the late seventies. With public outcry against putting children in the line of danger the practice fell out of favor. Not that this meant teenagers weren't trying to be heroes. It just meant they didn't have anyone teaching them how to do it. Which in turn lead to a rise in what became known as the anti-hero. Men and women who were brutal in their campaigns against crime. With nobody teaching them things like how to investigate or how to control any super human capabilities they had, disaster was inevitable.

That disaster was the Oakdale Elementary incident. In 1983 a young man calling himself Mega Cannon got into a fight with the super villain group known as Fem Fatale. These five women were all known to be armed and dangerous. Between the weapons made by their leader Bombshell, the ability of Miss Mai to control kinetic forces, Maybe Babe's mind control, and the extensive combat experience of the twins Hotnesss and Kink the group was considered at the time one of the most dangerous criminal groups in North America.

Mega Cannon used his magnetic abilities to launch a bus filled with school kids at the criminals. With mistakes such as using occupied vehicles as projectile weapons to throwing propane tanks at a woman with known pyrokinetic abilities the fight achieved international notoriety. Mega Cannon quickly became the poster boy for groups claiming meta-humans were dangerous loose cannons and needed to be regulated. This started an eight year long campaign to reign in costumed crime fighters.

In 1991 the Freedom Society founded a second team, this time of teenage heroes in training. They were lead by the alien known as Cree, who had worked alongside the Society for six years by that point. This second team was in support of a recently passed law which mandated training for would-be heroes. The same law required anyone with super human capabilities, be it from training or powers, to register their costumed and civilian identities with the Justice Department if they intended to fight crime.

After the Freedom Society disbanded in 2008 Cree looked up former members and pitched an idea to them. That idea was to build a school, an academy if you will. Here he would teach anyone with powers, enhanced intelligence, extraordinary gift with mechanics, or unusual drive. It would be an academy to teach the next generation of heroes, and the generations beyond them. Something which would still be around long after his own bones had turned to dust.

But it wasn't just an idea for an academy of heroes. It was a school to teach the most precious of things; control. Here people young and old would come to learn how to use their gifts in a safe environment. This was the school's central founding principle. Not to teach how to fight crime, although that was a big thing. No, it was a school to teach how not to endanger others. It was the first such school to be founded. And many considered it the best.

The teaching staff were mostly former heroes and heroines. Although when the Freedom Society was refounded by a group of students from Freedom Academy many of it's members took up positions in the Academy's teaching staff as well. It was an arrangement which worked out well. In fact, this arrangement meant that half of the current Freedom Society members were currently within the Academy's grounds when a stasis field passed over Freedom City. The other half had been in the Freedom Mansion teleconferencing with Washington DC.

From the safety of it's pocket dimension, the Freedom Academy protected nearly a thousand people. It was here that steps were taken to neutralize the stasis and liquefaction field which had encircled the globe. When that proved impossible, Cree had a new project started by the science and engineering classes. This was a means to travel to and colonize the planet's moon. During the experiments one of the former teachers was located. But the malfunctioning gateway only had enough power for one person to go through. Nor was it likely to be possible to open again.

"Catmandu, I've left a message for if anyone finds this place. I'm going after Susan. And yes I understand this is a one way trip. No one as honorable as her deserves to be trapped alone in a strange place. Make sure everyone safely travels to their new home. It has been an honor working with you."

The elderly anthropomorphic feline would have smiled if his facial muscles allowed such an action. "No my friend, the honor has been my own. Safe journey to your new hunting ground."


	6. The Arrival Chapter Five

**Review Responses:** As previously mentioned, i generally prefer responding to reviews via private messages But that's not always possible. Guest, I find it amusing that you assume the Freedom Society world setting is a "campy 70's". It was originally a campaign setting for a long running superhero roleplaying campaign using the Heroes Unlimited system, published by Paladium Books. While the setting is mostly 4 color style, there have been plenty of serious campaigns in the world setting. Ones that have touched on moral, philosophical, and sociological issues. There's also been campaigns ran in the setting which ended up as irrelevant as The Tick. When the players make a group of whimsical food based heroes, you just can't do a serious campaign. More often it's been a middle ground. Serious storylines, but often with a 4 color flair.

And as mentioned in the interlude, very few heroes have retired due to getting too old for it. Most retire due to crippling injuries or death. So even at it's most whimsical, the Freedom Society world is deadly dangerous. But yes, the heroes from that world do have something which Earth Bet would appear to have lost. They still have hope for a brighter future. And the willingness to fight tooth and nail for that brighter future regardless of the personal cost. In short, they still have the belief that one person can make a difference. That one man or woman, with enough courage and determination, can save the world.

This is the true impact Susan Swan and any of her compatriots would have on Earth Bet. But it's one that Superman would have too, or Captain America. Even if they couldn't completely stop endbringers, such a hero would inspire hope. They would act as a shining beacon of what humanity can and should be. Earth Bet is a world brought to the edge of destruction by a well meaning group of individuals who lost sight of what they are fighting for. A person who does the right thing without compromising for the simple reason of it's the right thing to do would shake the foundations of their whole world. At least, that's my view on things.

Anyway, on with the story.

 **Tinkering with Fate**

 _75 days ago_

A teenage girl sifted through the dumpster behind Fugly Bobs. Sophia Hess considered this to be just one more thing which she would get revenge for. Ever since she'd escaped the holding cell the PRT had put her in that had been a driving goal. Well, revenge and avoiding capture. The only good thing that had come from encountering that blond woman was that Sophia's powers were no longer disrupted by electricity. It was this fact which had allowed the escape to begin with.

Revenge should have been easy. Without her glaring weakness the PRT and Protectorate couldn't stop her. Nobody could do that. Except it had been replaced by something even more annoying. Hess had discovered to her disgust that she could no longer move through bright light in her shadow state. This made it all but useless during the day, or if there were any lights on. The fact that so far the blonde bitch was spending nearly all her time in the Protectorate headquarters made getting to her difficult. The halls always being brightly light made getting to Swan impossible while she was there.

It was also complicating the process of evading capture. Such as right now she could see Kid Win riding his damn hoverboard and heading in her direction. The sun was still up, which meant she couldn't just go shadow and be protected that way. Nor was there a sewer directly underneath her. Thus there was the chance of getting turned around while traveling through the ground. Which meant doing something which Sophia hated, being subtle. She was a god damn apex predator, and apex predators weren't subtle!

Still, being recaptured would be a pain. So she pulled the hood up on her stolen jacket and slipped through the alleyways. Up ahead she saw two large men moving towards a teenage girl. The girl didn't appear to have noticed the men, although it was none of Sophia's business. The only reason this affected the young sociopath was because the two men were blocking the alley. Since there was still too much light to use her shadow state, Hess barged through the two men. This knocked one of them into a trash can. The other girl turned around at the noise, then took off running. The two men were soon chasing after her.

The noise also attracted Kid Win's attention. Which meant Hess had to move too. She didn't run, instead she walked slowly as if she had every right to be here. Up ahead the girl had ducked into a building. Interestingly, the two men bounced off the open doorway. Hess didn't however when she tried entering that building. It was dark enough inside, so she entered her breaker state and slipped into the ground. Other then that Hess didn't care what happened with the girl.

In another location, a thin man cursed the poor options he had available. And he didn't even know why his plans were going wrong. But his target escaping him into that particular building was the best of a series of bad choices he could make.

 _50 days ago_

Lisa Wellborne was not her original name. But it was the one she was using. Working as a sales clerk at Swantech wasn't the most glamorous of jobs. But it was a job. It came with a bed to sleep in. And it was safe from whoever had tried to abduct her the previous month. All she had to do was avoid trying to analyze her employer. The blond woman gave a near instantaneous Thinker headache every time Lisa tried it. On the one hand, that was annoying as hell. On the other hand Lisa had learned more about science and mathematics from the three times she'd tried then she had in school.

When the door's chime rang Lisa looked up and said "Welcome to Swantech, how can I help you today? Oh, hello Taylor. The boss is in the workshop, you might want to grab some goggles before you go in. She said something about working with ultraviolet wavelengths earlier. I'll let her know you're here."

The vulpine grin she habitually wore was in full force. All signs pointed that today was going to be a fun day. This was proven true a half hour later when Hookwolf bounced off the front window. The next few attempts to gain entrance went over just as well. It was just plain amusing watching villainous capes trying to break in to either kill or forcefully recruit her boss. After the time Skidmark had made his first attempt, most of the stores in the area had hired her boss to upgrade their own security suites with the same technology, starting with Ubuy Electronics.

Lisa picked up the phone and dialed the PRT's number. "Hi, it's Lisa again. Could you send some people? A villain's trying to break into Swantech. Yes, again. It's Hookwolf this time."

 _This is better then watching sports._

 _15 days ago_

Deep in his underground base Coil plotted. Or rather that is what he normally did. Today was more taken up with brooding then plotting. His efforts to acquire a powerful thinker two months ago had been foiled, and he wasn't sure exactly how or why it had happened. There was some detail he was missing. The initial attempt had been interrupted by an unknown black woman pushing his men to the side, thus alerting the target. Which had caused the target to run into a building being used by a new but powerful tinker named Swan. He still didn't have much information on Swan.

That had been the good timeline. In the other one he had his men confront the target on the Boardwalk an hour earlier. In that one the same black woman had interfered by pushing one of his men aside. The mercenary had retaliated, which had lead to a brawl where the black woman started using a pipe to beat his men. The ruckus had attracted the Wards, and his target had convinced Kid Win and Clockblocker she needed to see Director Piggot. Piggot having access to a thinker of that level wasn't something Coil wanted, so he'd dropped that timeline.

A few more attempts had been made to capture the target. But those too hadn't worked out well. She rarely left the Swantech building. And testing had shown nobody could enter that building if they had criminal intent. The idea of taking hostage someone this Swan woman cared about and forcing a trade had occurred. That too hadn't worked out very well. When he sent a squad into Winslow High to capture the Hebert girl they came under assault by a bald green skinned case 53 who had used a hell of a lot of guns. And what appeared to be a lightsaber. Plus a bow which fired energy bolts. And that wasn't including the grenades which exploded into a sticky goo that hampered movement.

According to the reports he'd stolen from the PRT before dropping that timeline, the case 53 was an extraterrestrial mercenary named Cree. Or at least that was what the cape had claimed. Who then proceeded to offer his services to the PRT on a job by job basis. Since then this Cree had popped up multiple times. One of them had been at a casino robbery which Coil himself had arranged as a distraction. But there was no sign of where the case 53 was based out of.

 _Now_

It had taken nearly three months. But Sophia had finally found a way around whatever had kept her from entering Swantech. She was careful to remain mostly submerged in the ground. The only thing above the surface was the tip of one finger. And this she kept in the shadow thrown by Hebert. Other then that the former hero was careful to move in step with Hebert. And sure enough it worked. This allowed her to bypass the barrier. From there it was a simple matter of following Hebert until she had located the main target.

Cautiously scouting the area, she found it was closed off from all outside light sources. _Perfect, time for revenge._ Sophia emerged in the shadows thrown by some bulky equipment. A thrown knife shattered the overhead light, plunging the room into darkness. Hess then stepped out of her hiding place, crossbows already loaded and ready. The first bolt flew true, strikeing Hebert where the heart should be. It was a shot Hess wouldn't have been able to make in these conditions before. But ever since the locker she'd found it easy to see in absolute darkness.

The skinny teenage screamed in a way that pleased Hess before collapsing to the ground. "And now for you, bitch."

Swan hadn't been idle though. As soon as the light had been smashed she had grabbed a bulky object and wrapped it around her waist. The bolt fired at Swan never connected. Instead it bounced off an invisible barrier about half an inch away from Swan's skin. Sophia saw the tinker grabbing a weird looking pistol and laughed. The goggles which were also retrieved were of slightly greater concern. _Wait, where's the wimp?_ When she looked again the bolt which had impaled Hebert was laying on the ground, but there was no scrawny teenager bleeding out. Instead there were hundreds of insects. Cockroaches, spiders, beetles, wasps, and more were spreading out across the floor.

Swan seemed to have noticed this too. Now wearing the goggles, the tinker said "Interesting, I don't think I've heard of such an ability outside of supernatural circles. As for you my homicidal guest, I would suggest you surrender peacefully. While I abhor violence, I have no qualms about putting you down if that is what is required."

 _ **XxXxX**_

It had been weeks since he'd last been out in the field. And months since he'd interacted with anyone who wasn't a criminal outside of Dragon. Even then, it was always Dragon who had to initiate any dialog. This was worrying her. As was the fact that her friend had started to break the law. He was stealing technology from local stores. Specifically he had stolen several devices built and sold by Swantech to local merchants. The fact he had been forced to build something specifically to allow himself access to the stores in order to acquire said devices was even more alarming.

As was his preforming surveillance on Swantech. Six times in the last month alone she'd had to stop him from hacking into Susan Swan's computers. Dragon wasn't sure if she herself could hack that database. And Colin wasn't as good as her. In all it pointed towards an obsession which was growing stronger day by day. An alarm sounded from one monitor. Colin looked at it and a manic expression crossed his face upon seeing footage of Swan fighting Shadow Stalker. Quickly he grabbed one of his newly modified weapons and ran towards the vehicle bay. If one were to ask, he couldn't have said what exactly he planned to do upon arriving at Swantech.

 _ **XxXxX**_

Victoria enjoyed her life. As the high flying heroine Glory Girl she had fans. She also got to regularly beat up criminals. Plus she had a hunky boyfriend who happened to be a Ward. So she felt things couldn't get much better. Today however she wasn't particularly looking for trouble. She had just decided to go flying for the sheer fun of it. The sound of an explosion however drew her attention towards the business district. She couldn't see the cause, but more explosions followed.

The noise made it easy to track down the source. That was a store which her mother was still upset about. Some place called Swantech Repairs. Another detonation shook the air, so she dove fists first towards the section of the building the noise was coming from. It was a known fact that nobody had been able to force their way into the store since it opened for business. Not even Lung had managed it. Glory Girl however didn't even stop to consider what the likely reaction of her charge was.

The wall caved in easily. This let her see what the situation actually was. An unknown woman was holding a weird looking gun. And she appeared to be firing it randomly. Appearances were deceiving, as Glory Girl learned. But she only discovered this after bouncing off a force field the woman had erected. Hundreds, maybe thousands of bugs swarmed out of the building through the hole Glory Girl had made. Only then did the teenage heroine realize there was someone else in the building. Someone who was firing explosives at the woman Glory Girl had just tried to attack.

This was when she realized the woman with the force field was the tinker who owned the store.


	7. The Arrival Chapter Six

**Tinkering with Fate**

By the time Armsmaster had arrived Swantech Repairs looked like a block of swiss cheese. There was a large swarm of various bugs on the sidewalk which was practically covering one Lisa Wellborne, the store clerk. Said clerk was standing absolutely still, as if worried any movement would provoke the swarm Five armed men wear near the swarm, all unconscious with tinkertech weapons laying near them. Glory Girl was standing in front of the ruined building in a state of shock. And Swan herself was kneeling next to one of the unconscious men doing... something.

She glanced at her watch and scowled. "You have a speedster on your team, and presumably have many high tech vehicles. Yet forty minutes is your best response time? And I still haven't seen a police unit. The rampaging buffoon over there only took ten minutes to investigate, and she as I understand it wasn't even out patrolling. Even these opportunistic kidnappers had a better response time. Speaking of which, I will deal with you Miss after I have ensured these criminals will survive their injuries."

With that Swan went back to tending the five men. Unlike how she would have preferred to treat them, the woman was using standard anti-toxins and other drugs to prevent poison and anaphylactic shock. It was fortunate that these had been on hand. With the number of dangerous invertebrates in Brockton Bay this was simply a sensible precaution. As she administered aid and awaited the called ambulances Swan considered what she had seen. _Einstein's lost theorem, this shows I was right. I need to build a Gate sooner then I'd planned._

Finally she stood up. Swan stalked over to Glory Girl, an angry expression on her face. If she noticed the fear aura which Glory Girl had instinctively projected there was no particular sign. Lisa trembled. The swarm shifted in agitation. Even Armsmaster took a step back or ten. Susan on the other hand ignored it. She got right up in Glory Girl's face and slapped her hard enough to cause the teenager's head to move. Then immediately slapped her again. it caused Swan's hand to sting something fierce, but was worth it. Surprisingly the second slap had left a red mark upon Glory Girl's cheek.

"You arrogant, reckless, idiot! Do you have any idea how much damage your actions have caused? Or what could have happened with you smashing everything in sight without thought? The generator you threw at Shadow Stalker alone could have been catastrophic! It's based on particle acceleration and ionization technology, you could have blown up half the city with that stunt alone! You are lucky I designed it to safely implode in the event of critical structural damage.

"And did it even occur to you that she was immune to physical trauma? I was trying to find an effective means to stop the criminal since gravatonic waves, agitated neutronian particles, and physical impact hadn't worked. You smashed the scanner being used by using it as a damn club. And who the HELL taught you how to assess a situation anyway? You _**do not**_ assault friendlies when dealing with a known criminals. And turn off your Clark be censored fear aura before you get an innocent killed!"

Once the fear aura had been suppressed the highly agitated bugs began to calm down. Soon after that they swarmed into a mound. More and more flowed into it as it took on a humanoid form. This entity ran into the ruined Swantech building before it finished changing. Swan watched this with interest before turning to Armsmaster. The tacturn hero took a step back. She was practically vibrating in her fury. It was rather intimidating. And this was to someone who had faced Endbringers multiple times.

 _ **XxXxX**_

It was with a little annoyance that Swan examined the outfit she'd put together. The bright pink tank top didn't quite reach her belly button. The pants were the same shade of pink. On her left breast was the silhouette of an open clam shell. The force redirection belt she'd worn during Shadow Stalker's attack was secured around her waist. Several storage pouches had been added to the belt to contain an assortment of useful things. This especially contained a compact set of various multi-tools. She also had a holster at her right hip which contained the gravimetric wave projector she'd used to try fending off Shadow Stalker.

The capstone to the outfit was a dark yellow visor which concealed her eyes. The visor eventually would contain an assortment of detection equipment. But for now it was merely a visor. She also had a canary yellow pack on her back. This contained extendable wings and a air jet to allow, in theory, flight. While it worked in initial tests, it still hadn't been tested to see if it could actually provide controlled flight. The controls for it were built into her gauntlets.

The outfit wasn't one that Swan was particularly happy about. In truth she preferred to wear full armor on those occasions where she went out looking for trouble. The fact of the matter however was that she just couldn't afford to build a suit of armor. Repairs to her shop and replacing destroyed equipment was eating nearly all her disposable income for the next several months, at minimum. She couldn't even afford to build the Gate which would be needed to access the academy's pocket dimension.

In truth the only reason she had put together this costume was politics. For her plan to work, people would need to believe she knows what she's doing. And for that to happen, she would need to be established as an unaffiliated hero. It wasn't a life she was particularly enthusiastic about. Swan much rather preferred to spend her time in a workshop tinkering with her latest inventions. Even during her time with the Freedom Society she mostly avoided patrolling, only going out when her expertise would be useful. Yet needs must, so Virgo would walk crime ridden streets once again.

"I hope the flight pack can withstand the stress," she muttered worriedly. "I dislike having to use salvaged materials when building things that complex."

Deciding that now was the best time for a field trial, she applied exactly 0.75 pounds of pressure on the sensors built into both palms. This sent a signel to the pack which extended it's wings. A second dual press of exactly 0.35 pounds of pressure caused the turbine to start up and initiated the flight control systems in her gauntlets. This lifted her into the air. She leaned forward and clenched her left hand into a fist. This caused the turbine to force air through faster and provided forward thrust.

For the initial test she had decided to limit the flight pack's thrust capabilities to between hovering and five miles an hour. Or in other words a fast walk. If things worked out she planned to adjust things to allow up to fifty miles an hour. Swan also stayed within fifteen feet of the ground on this initial test flight. If the systems failed, she didn't want to risk falling too far or traveling too fast. Fortunately other then a concerning warble it appeared to work as intended. Making minor adjustments of her right hand's positioning she tested the guidance flaps on the wings, traveling first up two feet then back down two feet.

After traveling six blocks Swan dialed back the thrust then landed. _I'll need to look into what causes that noise,_ she mused. _It sounds a little like the turbine is out of phase. That could be problematic at higher speeds or altitudes. I wonder if it's a problem with the design or with the materials?_ As she landed a man who was exiting his car looked startled. He took in Swan's appearance with a raised eyebrow. When he spotted the gravity gun his eyes widened and blood seemed to race away from his face. She quickly deduced what alarmed him.

"Greetings good citizen, there's no cause for concern. I'm just running a field test on some newly constructed equipment."

When no hostilities commenced the man calmed down a little. "If I may ask, who are you?"

Recognizing the man as the reporter type she responded "I'm called Virgo. That's v as in vase, I as in inside, r as in race, g as in goat, and o as in owl. I expect you will see me out and about fairly regularly. I have taken it upon myself to aid the local constabulary in curtailing criminal excesses. In fact I shall be introducing myself to them tomorrow. By them I refer to the constabulary, although I suppose criminals shall be meeting me equally soon. Much, I imagine, to their displeasure."

 _ **XxXxX**_

 **Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**  
You are currently logged in, Graceful Swan  
You are viewing:  
• Threads you have replied to  
• AND Threads that have new replies  
• OR private message conversations with new replies  
• Thread OP is displayed.  
• Ten posts per page  
• Last ten messages in private message history.  
• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

 **In: Boards ► ► Brockton Bay ► Cape Doings ►Virgo**  
 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Mar 10th 2011:  
A cape was seen flying around last Wednesday. There's video of it here. What I find interesting is that the new tinker is rather cautious. According to her Virgo was preforming a short distance low altitude field test on the flight pack. The majority of tinkers I know of wouldn't do this. Instead they would build the device then immediately start using it at full capabilities.

She also vehemently denies being a tinker. I saw her towards the end of her field test and managed to ask some questions. According to the new cape, her name is Virgo and she plans to start a school to teach new capes how to control their powers. Rather personable woman, if a little long winded.

When I talked with her, Virgo told me she considers the Wards program to be a bad joke that doesn't prepare the Wards for what they'll encounter. Virgo also mentioned that she is disappointed in whoever has been teaching Glory Girl. I'm still talking to my sources, but I'm informed this may be a response to the recent demolition of Swantech Repairs by Glory Girl during a battle with an unconfirmed villain.

 **(Showing page 62 of 84)**

► **Deadman**  
Replied On Mar 15th 2011:  
Seriously? I mean it Lung4Life, seriously? That's just... Wow. Just... Wow.

► **Graceful Swan** (Extradimensional Refugee)  
Replied On Mar 15th 2011:  
I thank you for the kinds words everyone. It's rather distressing to know how little regard established heroes show to collateral damage. My understanding is that Glory Girl is part of a long standing team. Didn't they ever teach her how to control her strength? Or what the dangers of using an emotional manipulation technique all the time are?

Does no one in this world know what Stockholm syndrome is or about long term behavioral conditioning, also known as brainwashing? I wouldn't be in the least surprised if there are serious long term exposure effects to Glory Girl's aura. Even if there are no long term effects, how many heart attacks has she caused? Using such abilities all the time is reckless and stupid.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX** (Banned)  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
I knew it! Swan is a villain, and it's so obvious she's this 'virgo'

 _Speculating on the identities of capes is forbidden. Welcome to another one week ban -Tin Mother_

► **Graceful Swan** (Extradimensional Refugee)  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
I make no secret that Virgo is my costumed identity. Stopping criminals is a good way to do final field testing of non-lethal take-down technology I am working on. As well things like my force deflection belt. It not only lets me determine how effective such inventions are, but serves as advertising as well for when I have all the bugs worked out and am ready to sell certain things to law enforcement agencies.

That, and as an old friend once told me: There is no good business to be had in ending the world. Groups like the Azin Bad Boyz, Merchants, Empire Eighty-Eight, and their ilk don't seem to understand this concept. In fact few criminals do. I'm fairly certain the Protectorate and Parahuman Response Team fail to grasp the importance of this idea either.

The natural result of meta-human gangs becoming the main power in a city is that that city's infrastructure will collapse. Not may, not could, but will collapse. Fortunately this rarely happens. Or at least it should be a rare occasion. It's been documented that when powerful super villains exist, heroes who can stop them arise in that area. Either new heroes crop up or already existing ones move in.

If I didn't know any better, I would suspect someone is actively working to ensure major threats such as Lung and Jack Slash remain at large. Individuals who are capable of arresting such criminals are often moved to different cities. And to be honest, I'm not sure why nobody has sent a sniper after Jack Slash yet. The man has a history of psychologically torturing heroes until they become just as insane as he is. Why is this man still alive and free to terrorize the nation?

► **GstringGirl**  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:

What?

► **BadSamurai**  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
After the New Wave movement fiasco, I'm surprised anyone would have a public identity.

► **Graceful Swan** (Extradimensional Refugee)  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
I am posting this while waiting for a squad car to arrive, so I'll be brief.

There are good reasons for a hero to have a secret identity. One of the biggest reasons is to protect their loved ones from retaliation. That's something that New Wave forgot about. That said, I do agree with them on one thing. Heroes do need to be held accountable. As Cold Snap would say, no one is above the law. Not even the ones who enforce it.

Notice I said heroes having secret identities, and not 'capes' having secret identities. This is deliberate. There is no valid reason for a super villain's identity to be left as an enigma. You do not allow serial killers to work at the local grocery store once you know who they are, do you? So why are super villains on this world treated any differently?

Got to go, the police have just arrived.

► **Feychick**  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
That... That's a good point actually.

► **Acree**  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
Holy crap, Virgo is posting in this thread while out arresting criminals? What the hell, that's awesome.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:  
Those are some good points Graceful Swan. I think I have some research to do now.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **61** **, 62,** **63** **,** **64** **,** **65** **...** **82** **,** **83** **,** **84**

 **Author Notes:**

I will be honest, at first I'd misremembered what Tattletale's last name is for her alias. Then again I'd have to look up what her real name actually is too. But after I'd thought about it a bit, I realized it IS an alias, not her real name. And what is to say she didn't use a different last name for her alias in this world? Just as when I realized I had been misspelling the location Ranma ½ is set in for multiple chapters of a previous story, I'd considered going back and fixing every single instance. Instead I decided that in that particular world the spelling was in fact different. I then set about fixing the spelling in future stories. So in this world she decided to use a slightly different last name. And really, this is a minor thing to complain about.

Regarding the idea that Swan is a Mary Sue, she has her strengths and her weaknesses. The thing is that she's scary smart. As in you're unlikely to find any moral being anywhere who's as smart as her. In fact, she's nearly at the level of Cosmic intelligence. But she's not all seeing or all knowing. Outside of intellectual pursuits she's highly gifted but not exceptional. In fact her flaws will be coming to light in the future. I'll be posting her Mutants & Masterminds write-up soon as the first installment of a series of M&M write-ups of various heroes and villains from the Freedom Society world. Second one will be for Cree, after that I'm not decided yet.

If you read my other stories, you'll notice a theme. I very rarely give Character Shields to the main characters. They can screw up. They make mistakes. They can, and frequently do, get hurt. And they can die. I typically save character death for when it's dramatically appropriate though.


	8. Hero Files: Virgo

_This is the first in a series of entries featuring the Mutants & Masterminds writupes of central personalities in the Freedom Society setting_

Susan 'Virgo' Swan - PL 10

Strength 1, Stamina 3, Agility 3, Dexterity 2, Fighting 3, Intellect 15, Awareness 3, Presence 2

 **Advantages**

Attractive 2, Eidetic Memory, Equipment 3, Evasion, Fearless, Improved Initiative, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-all-trades, Languages 4, Set-up, Skill Mastery: Expertise: Earth Sciences, Skill Mastery: Expertise: Physical Sciences, Skill Mastery: Technology, Well-informed

 **Skills**

Acrobatics 4 (+7), Athletics 4 (+5), Close Combat: Unarmed 4 (+7), Expertise (DEX): Club Dancing 9 (+11), Expertise: Chemistry 5 (+20), Expertise: Earth Sciences 5 (+20), Expertise: Life Sciences 5 (+20), Expertise: Physical Sciences 5 (+20), Investigation 4 (+19), Perception 6 (+9), Persuasion 4 (+6), Ranged Combat: Gravometric Wave Projector 4 (+6), Technology 5 (+20), Treatment 3 (+18), Vehicles 5 (+7)

 **Powers**

Force Deflection Belt (Device, Removable) 3 PP

 _Kinetic redirection field_

Deflect: Deflect 8 (Linked; Limited: affects projectiles only, Limited: defends wearer only,

Permanent, Reduced Range: close)

Gravometric Wave Projector (Device, Easily Removable) 32 PP

 _High Gravity Sphere Shot_

Gravity Amplification: Snare 8 (Linked; gravity, technological, DC 18)

high gravity sphere: Blast 8 (Linked; gravity, technological, DC 23)

 _Low gravity sphere shot_

gravity negation: Nullify 4 (Linked; Counters: gravity, DC 14)

low gravity sphere: Blast 4 (Linked; DC 19)

Equipment

Car, Cell Phone, Flashlight, Multi-tool, Swantech Repairs, Tool Belt (3) 1, Toolkit (Basic)

Offense

Initiative +7

Grab, +3 (DC Spec 11)

gravity amplification: Snare 8, +6 (DC Dog 18)

gravity negation: Nullify 4, +6 (DC Will 14)

high gravity sphere: Blast 8, +6 (DC 23)

low gravity sphere: Blast 4, +6 (DC 19)

Throw, +2 (DC 16)

Unarmed, +7 (DC 16)

Complications

Brains and Beauty: Due to her good looks Susan could enter, and likely win beauty pagents. This however tends ot cause people to disregard her intellect. After all, nobody who's smoking hot like her could be a genius inventor or skilled mechanic, right?

Cronic financial issues: Due to running a small shop and the fact her former employer stole her patents, Susan frequently has tight finances. As such she rarely can afford more then the bare minimum for running her shop. Any parts she does manage to acquire for inventing tend to be second hand at best, and frequently from the junk yard.

Languages

English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian

Defense

Dodge 6, Parry 3, Fortitude 6, Toughness 3, Will 9

Power Points

Abilities 64 + Powers 35 + Advantages 21 + Skills 18 (72 ranks) + Defenses 12 = 150

 **NOTES:**

What do the numbers mean? In Mutants & Masterminds the highest a normal person can have for an Ability (base attributes) is 7 and 10 is average. This means that other then her scary high intelligence Susan Swan is a normal person. Well, as normal as a Power Level 10 character can be that is. What do the numbers mean? Following is the Ability benchmark chart from page 107 of the M&M main book.

-5 completely inept or disabled

-4 weak; infant

-3 younger child

-2 child, elderly, impaired

-1 below average, teenager

0 average adult

1 above average

2 well above average

3 gifted

4 highly gifted

5 best in nation

6 one of the best in the world

7 best ever, peak of human achievement

8 low superhuman

10 moderate superhuman

13 high superhuman

15 very high superhuman

20 cosmic

For comparison, Batman is arguably one of THE best hand to hand fighters in the DC universe. He has a Intellect attribute of 8, Fighting attribute of 14, and no ranks in close combat or ranged combat. Although to be fair Fighting appears to be the one attribute where a normal person can get better then a 7. Nobody will claim Dick Grayson or Tim Drake are meta-human, yet both have a Fighting attribute above 7. Not as high as Batman though. Even Green Arrow has a Fighting attribute above 7.

For a PL 10 character, she's actually not as good as you might expect outside of her specialty of inventing. She gets a +6 to hit when firing her gravity gun, and a +7 to hit with unarmed attacks. While better then someone without a lot of training, she'll have difficulty hitting anyone who's better trained then her. Which is many heroes and villains. Her defenses, or the roll needed to actually hit her, are 16 Dodge (need a total of 16+ to hit with ranged attacks) and 13 Parry (need 13 or better to hit her in hand to hand).

The only reason Shadow Stalker had such difficulty hitting her initially is she wasn't expecting any sort of combat training. Then again, Shadow Stalker is also use to using her breaker state in combat to bypass the enemy's defenses and protect herself from retaliation.


	9. Faerie Knight Muses

**Author Musings**

I'm still working on the planning out general events for the next arc. But in the mean time there's been some reviews which I'd like to respond to. I've answered some of the questions a few times privately, but that's not possible with Guest reviews. More the pity, I actually prefer responding privately rather then like this. So here are a few thoughts regarding recent reviews by several guests. First off I'll address the complaint regarding how I described the field which forced Swan to abandon her earth, and trapped many people in the Freedom Academy.

The setup for why Swan had to leave her world is based on an episode of the TV show Eureka, a show which follows the sheriff with normal intelligence but lots of common sense for a town filled with super geniuses who routinely violate the laws of physics as a matter of course. This is a town where "random acts of gravity" is a valid criminal offense, time travel has happened multiple times, and many other wacky scientific hijinks. In the episode in question a visiting scientist is there to preform an audit, but accidentally uploads a self hypnosis program into the town's jukebox. A jukebox which is used for all music in the town. This then starts causing (often hilarious) problems. One of these problems that gets resolved at the end of the episode is that two of the residents were listening to the song Melt With You by Simply English.

This song has the chorus of "I'll stop the world and melt with you, you've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time". This causes the two to build a device which generates an ever expanding bubble of frozen time. By the time this is noticed there's only one chance to stop the expansion. The attempt to shut down the machine is then complicated by the deputy listening to the song "I Shot the sheriff", and nearly doing just that. As I recall, the bullet fired freezes in place when it enters the time stop field. Then falls to the ground after the field is shut down, implying that it really did freeze time instead of just having a relativistic distortion of one's perception. Or maybe the field was a stasis field which merely halts all movement. The episode never said to my knowledge, but implied a time effect.

This story uses the AU idea that the sheriff was shot and killed, and thus the machine wasn't shut down in time. In the episode it was a very close thing, with the Sheriff just barely cutting power to the machine before it was too late right after he was shot at. Based on the lyrics of the song that caused Henry (I think) to make this device one can assume that it has two functions. First, it stops the world. This is shown by everything in the field freezing in time. Second it would probably cause organic matter to melt after it finishes 'stopping the world'. The line at the end of the prologue about the implosion taking a thousand years is there to imply that the machine didn't completely stop time, just slow it down to the point it effectively doesn't matter. It probably couldn't even function if it was a 100% complete time freeze since the machine is the origin point of the field.

What else would you call a field which quite literally distorts time in an ever expanding area so that it runs at such a slow rate that an implosion which should be near instantaneous takes a thousand years?

Now on to another point raised by a Guest review saying the Freedom Society setting being based on comics.

In regards to the Freedom Society world being based on comics, well that to an extent is true. I've mentioned this to others, but it's the campaign setting I use for superhero games. And the superhero genre has it's very real basis in comics. In fact without the first appearance of Superman we might not have superhero comics as we know them today. One could legitimately say that all superhero fiction has it's origin in comics, even if the world setting it's self doesn't. But the genre is even older then that. Yet with the introduction of Superman everything changed.

There were heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow for sure. They appeared in pulp serials and radio dramas. In fact The Shadow was originally a radio drama that got it's start as the mysterious announcer for a weekly crime drama series. It was only later that he got his own series detailing his exploits. The pulp magazines came later still. But these weren't true superheroes yet. The Shadow relied on hypnosis for most of his tricks, with detective skills and combat experience filling in the rest. These could be better classified as mystery men then superheroes.

The campaign world it's self was created over a ten year long campaign that began back in 1990. The campaign was initially set in 1948, and every now and then we'd advance the game world a few years while making new characters. Initially the campaign had a very pulp era mystery men feel to it. The campaign was fairly low powered with mostly skilled combatants in the style of pulp magazine masked crime fighters. Heroes like The Shadow, Flash Gorden, The Phantom, or at the higher end of the power scale Doc Savage provided the basis for the campaign's initial feel. The setting however has it's own heroes and villains. And even at it's most whimsical it's darker then comics tend to be. Heroes die, and they do so more often then you might expect for something based on comics.

As the campaign wore on it went through many stylistic changes. This ranged from four color golden era style adventures that would have fit in well with the old anthologies DC published to find the next big hit after Superman, to tales which would have fit within the height of the silver age. We had groups of characters who went on light hearted and campy 1960's Batman TV Show style adventures and ones which explored the darker side of superheroes with teams of anti-heroes who were more monster then man. My character in that part of the campaign was animistic and would eat whatever she could kill, including humans. She was the nicest and most moral member of the group.

One common theme from that original campaign has been that it mostly followed the adventures of the Freedom Society over the years. Hence why I call the setting the Freedom Society world. From it's origin as a sort of superhero gentlemens club where members gathered to share tales of their exploits (and occasionally team up) ala the original Justice Society comics, to modern times when the Freedom Society is recognized as the worlds longest active and most powerful super hero team the campaign chronicled it all. But we did occasionally go off and explore other teams and aspects of comics.

Anymore when I game master a campaign in this setting it follows rookie heroes who aren't affiliated with the Freedom Society. That team over the years became larger then life, and I typically run campaigns that focus on those who are just starting out. Not established and already well known heroes.

The setting has it's own rich history. And while some events might have been loosely modeled off events in comics, the Freedom Society world puts it's own spin on them. For example the events involving Mega Cannon I detailed in the interlude happened during that original campaign when it was set in the early 80's. At the time his character got arrested, went on trial, and was sent to jail for 30 years. The player made a new character, the end. Years later after the campaign had ended and I'd gotten permission to use the setting as my own from the others I read the Civil War storyline. By this time I'd began to write superhero stories set in the Freedom Society world set after the events which ended the campaign.

The events which trigger the Civil War in Marvel Comics struck me as remarkably similar to what happened with Mega Cannon during the campaign. Which got me to thinking. At the time the GM didn't want to deal with it any further then hammering home the point to the player to be careful with the heinous acts. That particular player had been kind of reckless up till then. He was new to the group too. He'd I guess not realized throwing a bus filled with school children at a villain isn't very heroic. But after reading Civil War I'd realized that things should have gone further then that.

At the time the campaign was dealing heavily with Punisher style vigilantism, which was kind of the big thing in the 80's. There was the Charles Bronson movies, most any action movie for that matter, The Punisher was becoming a major character in his own right, and so forth. Playing such characters when the campaign was set around then felt only natural. But after reading Civil War I put thought into why such anti-heroes would be on the rise in the 80's.

I considered what sociological changes would move things away from the hero/sidekick model which had lasted through the 70's. EVERY major hero in comics seemed to have a sidekick in the 40's and 50's. Batman had Robin. Aquaman had Aqualad. Superman had Supergirl (and Krypto I suppose). Arrow and Speedy, the list goes on and on for DC. Even Marvel comics did this. Captain America and Bucky, Human Torch (original, the android one) and Toro, and so forth. The justifications for the sidekick having identical powers sometimes got rather silly.

So what changed? Why would a system which clearly works, and the campaign had even dealt with it a few times, suddenly stop? Then I considered that the late 70's was also when society made a big stink about putting children in danger. Many sidekicks in comics were quietly forgotten in the 70's because of this shift in public opinion. Others were allowed to grow up and become major heroes or anti-heroes in their own right. Kid Flash took over as the Flash in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Robin split away from Batman and took on the identity of Nightwing, Supergirl took on the identity of Power Woman, and so forth on the DC end. Marvel mostly just phased the sidekicks out as if they never existed.

This change in public opinion I realized could be what caused the apprentice system of sidekicks to have been ended in the Freedom Society world. Society as a while no longer looked favorably on kids being put in danger. But what would be the fallout of this shift? After all, these teenagers weren't likely to NOT become heroes. But they no longer are receiving training from established heroes. Again Marvel comics did a good job of highlighting the ramifications with the New Warriors comic, and eventually their epic screw up. In the Freedom Society world there was already a similar, if smaller scale, disaster caused by Mega Cannon. In the comics much of the reason behind the Civil War debacle fall on the shoulders of Maria Hill and Tony Stark. Hill's with or against mindset and dislike of meta-humans created the initial problem, while Stark's arrogance and blindly following orders when combined with his "Me vs Everyone" attitude made things exponentially worse. The fact even the Avengers were falling apart due to various moral conflicts didn't help any

Personally, I thought the registration act as shown in Civil War was going too far. It exemplified the way Stark and Hill didn't understand many of the issues costumed crime fighters face. It also exemplified Hill's 'with me or against me' mentality. The registration act in comics had no middle ground. If you had powers or specialized training you HAD to register, be assigned to one of the teams being formed for the 50 state initiative, or you were automatically a criminal and would be hunted down like one.

It didn't matter if you even wanted to be a hero or not. Only want to live a quiet life? Tough, because you have some sort of super power you were forced to either register and become a hero... Or be thrown in an inescapable prison in a hostile dimension. And you'd be thrown in said prison without trial, probably injured and without medical treatment. Many heroes were permanently crippled because of this policy. Captain America was declared an enemy of the state and fired upon even before the registration act was even signed into law. Why? Because he refused to enforce this unjust law. Until Shield fired upon him without provocation though he wasn't going to fight the law. Just not enforce it by fighting his friends and any innocents who just happened to have a super power. He thought his time was better spent fighting actual super villains.

Interestingly, during the Civil War storyline Captain America's secret avengers fought more crime and stopped more super villains then Tony Stark's official avengers team. Stark was too busy hunting down and crippling his fellow heroes to actually fight crime.

So as I was considering the idea of a registration act and how it would be implemented in the Freedom Society world I considered the flaws in the original source material. At which point I realized there was no government agency like Shield with blanket authority to instigate such a war on heroes. Nor was there a group like the Illuminate that Marvel revealed with World War Hulk and Civil War that had secretly undermined both the heroes and governments (maybe without intending to do the either) even if for the best of intentions.

By that point in the world setting Mister E had become so powerful he's effectively his world's equivalent to Superman, complete with being a paragon of virtue. And had been continuously active since 1948, while not having worn a mask since 1965. If such a paragon, his team mates, and dozens of other heroic teams whom all are well respected were to testify before congress about why their planned registration act is doomed to failure and the problems it will cause rather then solve, I don't think it would have gone through. But I believe the experienced heroes would see what issues the registration act is trying to solve.

Thus I decided that while it took years, eventually a version of the registration act did get passed with the full backing of the Freedom Society. While the event in the Freedom Society world is inspired by comics, it's implementation isn't. And the final registration act passed in this setting isn't a blanket "register or go to prison" affair. You only have to register if you intend to use your gifts to fight crime. In which case training is mandated so the would-be hero isn't a danger to the public. Nor is their civilian identity made public knowledge. But it brings with it benefits such as actually being deputized to make arrests. Just want to use your laser vision to spot wield while working construction, or even hide the fact you have powers and live a quiet life? Then nobody in the government is going to bother you. Although your co-workers might be a tad alarmed when you are welding I-beams with your eyes.

I hope this exploration into the origins of the Freedom Society world setting is found to be interesting by others. I like the setting. It's got a lot of history, and is full of many fascinating stories. For Example in the FS world the Manhatten Project didn't create the atomic bomb. They were actually having a lot of trouble with the project. The bomb was in truth a modified and weaponized version of an experimental power generator created by Kevin Smith, aka Mister E that exploded to devastating effect when he first tested it.

This then had many repercussions, not the least of which is the curse Mister E suffers under to live until he atones for his invention. Perhaps I'll write an interlude at some point which explores some of these aspects of the Freedom Society world. Or maybe even Mister E's first acts as a hero. I've already written about the last days of the original Freedom Society in my Wild Horses series. As I mentioned, I'm still prepping for the next arc. But I expect I'll start writing it soon. I'd like to finish chapters for my other stories like Wild Horses Sometimes Breed and Wings of Destiny first though. Those two stories especially have been giving me trouble when writing the latest chapters.

This has been Faerie Knight, peace.


	10. The Academy Chapter One

**Tinkering with Fate**

The thin man stared at his computer in disbelief. Since the attempt to capture his target during a major battle which destroyed the Swantech building Coil had been even more cautious then usual. That disastrous mission had cost him five of his best men. While this normally wouldn't have been that great of a setback, that green case 53 had also dismantled one of his bases. The time line where Coil reinforced that base instead of trying to capture the parahuman going by Lisa Wellborne had gone worse. The case 53 had instead taken out important two bases, nearly crippling Coil's organization and revealing his identity to the authorities. He still didn't know how that had happened.

In fact, ever since the tinker Swan had shown up Coil had noticed events weren't following logical chains of cause and effect. The Travelers had refused his offer, citing that they had found a more reliable means to help the monstrous girl. How and why that had happened the costumed man had no idea. Then there was the Undersiders. The new team was working out well. While not the hidden powerhouse Coil had intended, the group Grue had put together (and where on earth did he get that name anyway?) were extremely good at not being detected.

That was a mixed blessing in truth. The goal had been to use the Undersiders to make noise and attract attention. That way Coil could then accomplish other objectives under the radar. This wasn't really possible with a team that specializes in quiet insertion and escaping without being detected. On the other hand, such a team was ideal for many other types of jobs. The fact they were still capable if it did come to a fight didn't hurt. That just wasn't the focus of the team.

What was currently baffling the villainous man however was what was happening on another of his operations. While in the other timeline Coil was part of a tour being conducted of some facility Virgo had access to, in this one he was directing a raid against the ABB. Or rather he was observing the results of said raid. The Undersiders were trying to rob a casino ran by the ABB, and were under orders to leave evidence behind for once. While a big and flashy hit would have been better for Coil's plan, that wasn't in the cards.

Oddly enough, according the the cameras hidden in the costumes worn by his team Coil had identified the annoying case 53 called Cree, yet again interfering with his operations. It seemed the self proclaimed alien had decided to shut down the money laundering facility beneath the casino. And this raid just happened to be occurring at the same time as the Undersiders were making one of their own. The end result was this cat and mouse game he was observing. The thing was, Coil had no idea who was the cat and who was the mouse.

With a sigh he groaned. "I'll have to drop this one due to that irritating man. But I wonder how it will play out?"

XxXxX

In another location a young Latino girl, barely fifteen years old was hiding insider a cardboard box. Again. As an old comrade use to say, things had gone tits up shortly after her new team infiltrated the target. At first everything had been fine. Then the green skinned nut had shown up carrying a weird looking bow and what at first had looked to be a motorcycle handlebar. Fortunately one of her team mates was able to neutralize the threat from the bow. It fired bolts of coherent light, which meant Shimmer could easily deflect them.

The darkness which her commander generated fouled up the abilities of Radar, the third squad mate. But the blonde man stopped complaining about it after their foe had revealed the handlebar to actually be a plasma sword, of all things. At first Erika had thought it to be a light saber, like from those movies. But Shimmer couldn't affect it at all. With silenced SOCOM pistol in hand, the teenager called Double Ess waited for the ideal moment to strike. It was a little annoying to her that the squad leader insisted on non-lethal ordinance though.

If it wasn't for the seriousness of everything, Double Ess would have likely compared the situation to one of the odder boss fights in her favorite video games. The problem was this enemy didn't have any exploitable patterns they could figure out. And he was rather good at fighting while blinded. In fact, it was almost like the green skinned man could actually see. Speaking of which, a scream from somewhere to the left told her Shimmer was likely out of action. Her mental map of the surrounding area told her the green man was close. Entirely too damn close.

 _ **XxXxX**_

 _Elsewhere_

The group that stepped through the glowing archway wasn't particularly large. It consisted of Swan, her assistant Lisa, a man named Colvert, she thought, Armsmaster, and the local director of the Parahuman Response Team. Most of the group thought there would be disorientation or discomfort from passing through a dimensional gateway. Yet there was no actual sensation. Not even that of passing through water, which is what Lisa would have expected. As the civilian identity of Coil entered the Freedom Academy's campus however an alarm began to sound.

" _Warning, unauthorized chronological activity has been detected"_ A computerized voice announced.

Swan swore softly. "Initiate Wells protocol Zero Zero Nine."

Piggot glared at the inventor and asked "What is the Wells protocol?"

It was Lisa who answered, wonder in her voice. "It's a stabilizing of the timeline in case of forced divergence by purging divergent chrono particles, while creating a field around everyone that preserves their memories of the nullified time line. How is that possi... Agh!"

The scream at the end was due to her parahuman ability trying to show her the answer to her own question. Yet the answer involved so much math that it gave her a near instantaneous Thinker headache. A common problem when dealing with Swan. Which was why Lisa typically avoided using her power on her employer's inventions. Understanding how and why they worked wasn't worth the pain gaining such knowledge the easy way generated. Even with all the equations now floating through her brain, Lisa still couldn't make heads or tails of them anyway.

Thomas Calvert, CEO of Fortress Construction was not amused when the alarm sounded. Hearing Lisa's description of what this 'Wells protocol' was, that amused him even less. As the wave of energy washed over him such thoughts and feelings ceased to matter. Then again, he no longer was standing in the hallway either. In another location entirely the man blinked in surprise as his second time line ended, yet he didn't receive any memories of what had happened. It was like he'd never activated his power. But in the hallway the remaining people looked around in alarm.

Piggot was scowling, an expression which seemed to be her favored default. "Why do I remember talking with a man who clearly isn't here?"

Armsmaster meanwhile was going over a recording of the previous five minutes with growing concern. The blond teenager was massaging her temples to deal with a migraine. And Susan herself was sighing. She'd thought situations like this were in the past. After all, Earth Bet had no known time travelers. Nor did it have to deal with madmen who casually erased people and places from history in a bid to 'correct the greatest injustice of all'. That adventure had been a month long headache of epic proportions.

"This is just a hypothesis," she started, "but it may be due to the man in question manipulating temporal physics in some fashion. The Freedom Society has dealt with time travelers before, and has methods to detect and neutralize chronological distortions within the Freedom Academy and Freedom Mansion. Well, at least the Mansion had been so protected before it was demolished the last time. I hadn't gotten around to fixing that defense yet.

"When dealing with madmen who can alter history, it is important to have both a fallback location that is safe from such manipulations and a means to know about the fact history is being changed. The defensive system it's self is kept slightly out of phase of this reality to protect it from temporal interference. For example, even if it's creator is erased from history, the defensive system still exists and is capable of a localized resetting of time to it's proper channel. It also logs what changes were detected and corrected."

Despite himself, Armsmaster was impressed. "How did you design and build it?"

Swan chuckled softly. "I didn't, it was made back in the seventies by a woman who called herself Time Keeper. According to the records, she claimed to be from the end of time, and that the Freedom Society was the best option to safeguard causality. Since we obviously aren't frozen in time, yet the campus appears deserted without being covered in organic sludge I can only assume the faculty has evacuated to a safe place. Which would indicate Time Keeper knew what she was talking about. Anyway, on with the tour. I'll show you the administrative offices first so you can review previous curriculum. Then the practical training chambers."

With that she approached a keypad next to the now dormant gate. After punching in a six digit code the gate lit up again, this time a soft yellow color. Silently Swan motioned everyone remaining to walk through. Instead of the workshop they had originally came from, it lead the group into a large building. There was again none of the disorientation one would have expected from instantaneous travel. It seemed like a pretty standard collage administration building when all was said and done. Swan explained the keypad as they explored the building within a building.

"Since the Academy campus is literally the size of Nevada, the entrance to each main area contains a localized Gate system. This network connects to Gates within the Academy's pocket dimension. Only the main Gate at the entrance can connect outside of the campus. This is a security feature. In case of emergencies, Gate access is disabled unless you input your personal pass code first. You can reach anywhere in the campus without using the Gate system as well, in case there is a problem with the network. A map of the layout is in the principle's office. That's important since the system's central data center is located in section J-16, sub level nine.

"When fully staffed and with maximum student capacity the Academy houses just under twenty thousand people. This includes teachers, medical professionals, psychiatrists, janitors, chefs, engineers, plumbers, entertainment professionals, as well as the student body. Make no mistake, this is a city as much as it is a school. When I was teaching here we had three different movie theaters, one stage theater, two golf courses, six mini-golf courses, dozens of restaurants, two public swimming pools, and eight different parks. And during my second term as a teacher we had the honor of hosting a Master Brawler event. The Master Brawler League was a mixed martial arts organization styled a bit after professional wrestling back in the '80's. A rather engaging sports show, even more so since the participants really were some of the top martial artists in the world."

 **Author Notes:** The time stabilizing tech comes from when the original campaign was set in the 1970's. At the time the GM had a fondness for time travel, so every 4th adventure would involve it somehow. This was when I was playing Catmandu, a mutant martial artist housecat. The player of Time Keeper was the GM's girlfriend, and only was part of the gaming group for six sessions, as I recall. She'd been talked into joining, but decided it was boring. So after her first adventure, a rather long one involving a nazi time travel plot, the player quit. As I recall Time Keeper's backstory was that she was the daughter of Orson Wells, and had been born in the year 4950.


	11. Interlude: Walking in shifting sand

**Tinkering with Fate**

It wasn't often that the woman smiled. In large part this was due to the burden upon her conscience she had willingly accepted. The path she walked was one paved in blood and atrocities. But it had been the one she could see that lead to victory. The end of her chosen road lead to the world's probable death, as well as the deaths of countless others across many realities. And even then it wasn't a guaranteed win. Yet it had been the best chance offered, the only chance in fact. And to her mind of thinking no price was too high to achieve a win against her foe.

Besides which, without her actions this world was doomed, as were untold others anyway. The scourge she faced was one which would scour all life from the entirety of creation. Against such a foe, of what consequence was a few sleepless nights? So she had surrounded herself with others just as driven. Others who also understood the threat, and the high price that would have to be paid. Of course she hadn't told them about the final butcher's bill. Unless they won, nothing they did would matter anyway. If the survivors called her a monster, the woman would accept the title gladly.

Then something unknown happened. Something which altered the path to victory she could clearly see laid out. From that moment the Path she could see became mutable, as if the underlying conditions were constantly changing. Or maybe that fundamental aspects of reality had been altered. At first the only difference was that there was a slightly higher chance of victory over her ultimate foe. But the reason wasn't connected to her own actions or events she set into motion.

By the time word had reached the woman of an unknown tinker in Brockton Bay that claimed to be an extra-dimensional refugee the woman had already found her plans going off the rails. She'd set into motion several key players who should have intersected several months down the line. Only one of the key players didn't end up hospitalized for a 'psychotic break' as predicted. Another minor player in the Path veered so far off of it that the woman had no idea what had actually gone wrong.

She got the feeling it was the tinker's fault in some form or fashion. A fellow conspirator was highly placed in the PRT. It was in this way that the organization named Cauldron so quickly gained access to the plans for a device said tinker wished to build. The unusual thing was that their engineers were able to actually understand the sketched out schematics. The method of it's construction and maintenance actually made sense. At least, they made sense to some of the engineers. The accompanying equations and theorems explaining the science behind the device, those nobody could make heads nor tails of.

And yet Doctor Mother had been excited by the equations and theorems. What little was understood opened up many new avenues of research. Even the mechanical aspect opened up new aspects of both electrical and mechanical engineering to be explored. And with each new experiment undertaken, the Path altered further. In fact, the mental representation she could see of it now resembled less like a single path and more like a complex web. An ever expanding web with many possible endings. Not all of which were the eradication of all life either.

It was for this reason alone that she recommended allowing the unknown tinker supervised access to a lab. The lack of one defined path to victory should have brought despair. Yet instead it inspired something she hadn't felt in a long time. She felt hope. Hope they actually could win. Hope for a brighter future. This was something nobody in Cauldron had truly felt since the Endbringers first appeared. After all, if they couldn't stop an endbringer... what chance did they have of defeating Him?

Several weeks after the tinker's appearance another event changed the Path yet again. This time it was accompanied by the appearance of a new Case 53, a green skinned man with a prehensile tail. The man used weapons which marked him as a possible tinker. Yet there had been none of the usual signs of a new tinker constructing something. Then there was the way he fought, like the case 53 was a long time veteran of war. Beyond that was another disturbing fact. There were no unaccounted for vials.

This indicated either someone else could create case 53's, which was unlikely. Or that the green skinned man was exactly what he claimed. Over the course of the next three months several more mysterious parahumans appeared. And with each one there was a brief event shortly before their first appearance. This event, for lack of a better way to described it, seemed to lighten the scale.

Instead of the moral quagmire Cauldron had created in their need to keep powerful parahumans free and active there appeared to be a slow trend towards something... better. Or worse, she couldn't tell off hand. In Washington State a red haired brute had appeared who could fire cerulean energy from her hands and create tornadoes at will. She had faced off against the Slaughterhouse Nine and not only survived, but had managed to capture Hatchet Face and Burnscar. The fact that the women did so using hand to hand combat was both interesting and alarming. According the the statement she gave after the capture, the woman called herself Knight Mare.

In Nebraska a man and woman made out of living ice had been systematically taking out criminals while heading towards Brockton Bay. Strangely the two were never seen at the same time. While they too might have been case 53's, the woman had been filmed changing from a flesh and blood woman with icy blue hair into her living ice form. From the police reports the duo called themselves Cold Snap and Ice Lady, respectively. And they refused to turn over parahuman criminals apprehended to the PRT, instead giving even those criminals over to the local police for persecution.

In Boston a teenage girl with dirty brown wings appeared and began making waves among the local capes. She called herself Sparrow Hawk, and from the police reports she regenerated at a rather fast rate in addition to having retractable talons and winged flight. And like the previous three unknown parahumans Sparrow Hawk wore a shield shaped badge with the letters FS embossed on it clipped to her belt. This same insignia was often stitched into the shirt the green skinned Cree wore. What it meant, not even Numbers Man was able to figure out yet.

All this made the woman both hopeful yet concerned. None of these new players aided the Path. In fact they had all already interfered in some of Cauldron's activities. And when a clairvoyant had tried to look into their actions, all he had seen was five sets of glowing eyes and a sense of disapproval. These men and women were wild cards, unpredictable and clearly working against Cauldron whenever they could. And yet the Path showed many ways to win, more then a few of which would put herself in prison. Still there was now more then just one Path to Victory. The real trick would be guiding it along the branches she wanted. And this made Contessa smile for she felt it would be an enjoyable challenge.

 **Author Notes:** This is a shorter chapter then I normally write. I typically try to write 3 pages at minimum for a chapter, 4 preferred with some stories. This isn't an interlude I was intending to do just yet. I wanted to do another chapter or two dealing with the Academy being started up first. Yet some reviewers did have valid concerns. For example, why was Swan given any access to a lab when the PRT has no reason to believe, let alone trust her? The short answer is that they didn't at first. I just skipped ahead past the initial distrust and keeping her in isolation.

This interlude, I'm not entirely happy with. I'm not exactly a fan of the Contessa character. Don't plan to actually do much with her in fact. And her power can make it really difficult to write a story other then "everything goes to shit, exactly like how Cauldron plans". But it did give me a chance to introduce other characters who will become important later on. It also lets me start laying the foundation for a paradigm shift (and why it happens) that began with Swan's arrival.

Next chapter will probably focus on either the Academy's founding again, or either Knight Mare or Cold Snap and Ice Lady. I want to further the current arc's main focus more, but I also don't want to abandon the mentioned characters either. I do plan to explore further exactly what is causing the paradigm shift later on too.

And yes, I realize I may be misspelling her name. If I did, I'll correct it shortly. I'm having trouble loading up the wiki to double check how to spell her name. Unlike with tattletale, I do try my best to keep code names accurate. I also try hard to keep a character's real name correct. Self given alias however, well any number of things can go into the decision of what to call yourself.


	12. The Academy Chapter Two

**Tinkering with Fate**

Being unable to sleep was not typically something Miss Militia considered a benefit. In truth it usually meant hours of boredom either trying to keep her mind occupied or filling out paperwork. And not just her own paperwork either. Many times her direct superior was too busy in his workshop to eat, let alone bother filling out the forms that needed to be filed in triplicate. Between after action reports, personnel reports, and the various forms and reports dealing with the Ward program Hannah rarely had a night to herself.

But that wasn't what occupied her time this night. Instead of her usual nighttime foe, Hannah was instead pouring through reports of a different sort. In the wake of an unknown tinker carrying a girl into the PRT building and the forums being the first indication of a crisis involving one of the wards, Hannah had been assigned the task of finding out exactly what went wrong. According to the video on youtube there had been dozens of witnesses, at least, to Shadow Stalker's outing herself. Among the witnesses were several Winslow High teachers.

Someone should have called the police at the very least regarding what could have been considered a kidnapping. Someone should have called the PRT when a portal appeared. This too got recorded by someone's cell phone for the youtube video. Yet neither of these events had happened, and Director Piggot wanted to know why. Hannah wanted to know this too. Perhaps the answers could have come sooner, but it had taken a while for some of the evidence to be reconstructed.

The picture that evidence was painting wasn't pretty. A bullying campaign being waged for a year at least. One which most of the faculty was well aware of, and covering up. Many complaints about the bullying campaign, along with pictorial evidence, had been located in the many bags of shredded documents. There were also several transfer requests put in by the Hebert girl which had gotten shredded. All of which collaborated the detailed journel kept by the victim in question.

The only reason the shredded documents had been recoverable at all was that they had been within the six large bags kept in the basement. Bags of documents which should have been sent to the dump or incinerated already, but the school's budget wouldn't pay to transport more then once a year. With this bit of knowledge it was a little more understandable why the faculty hadn't reported the situation. It had been instigated by Sophia 'Shadow Stalker' Hess after all. And according to one memo recovered by the IT department Sophia Hess had been protected by the principle in order to retain the funding hosting a Ward brought to the school.

Which still didn't explain the students. It had been verified that neither Swan nor Hebert had a master effect which affected humans. In truth, Swan wasn't even a parahuman according to the medical examination she'd submitted to. Which wasn't to say there wasn't an anomaly in the blood sample. Swan had possessed an extra gene which nobody could identify. It seemed to serve no discernible purpose either. Which left a disturbing possibility.

"Could Shadow Stalker be a master?" She mused aloud.

The evidence for such an idea was circumstantial at best. It was more likely to have been a gang related phenomenon. There were a lot of possible Empire Eighty-Eight junior members in the crowd after all. Or it could have been related to the portal. Nobody knew exactly what effects it's energies have on a normal person. Nor was this likely to be a discoverable piece of knowledge. No matter what the final answer, there was still the matter of the school's culpability.

Hannah quickly forwarded her findings to the BBPD to further their own investigation into the school. After that she turned to an embossed letter she'd received earlier. One which Hannah hadn't had time to open, let alone read. She quickly used her always available knife to slit the envelope open. It had already been cleared by security. After reading it she raised an eyebrow. Beneath her flag mask a smile began to form. _This is unexpected._ She thought after going over the letter twice more.

 _Miss Militia,_

 _As you have no doubt heard, the Wards program in Brockton Bay, San Francisco, and New York City is going to be suspended temporarily. What you may not be aware of is why. This will be the test class for a new training academy. This academy will teach the fundamentals of both controlling parahuman abilities and combating crime. Beyond the standard high school curriculum there will be classes in forensics, gathering evidence, search and rescue, how to handle a hostage situation, and other subjects needed to prepare the next generation of heroes._

 _To this end, your name has come up on the short list of those I would like to teach a specific. If you accept you will teach a class called 'creative physical solutions'. Or to put it more plainly, you will teach tactics and battlefield awareness. Term will begin on September 1_ _st_ _, although you may desire to familiarize yourself with both the campus and your training facilities before then. Time off for Protectorate business and Endbringer attacks is part and parcel to the employment contract._

 _I await your answer._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Principle Dragon_

 _ **XxXxX**_

Similar letters were arriving in many places. The recipients ranged from retired police officers to teachers struggling to reach apathetic students. Former heroes, too injured to continue the fight received letters too. But one of the recipients was reading his letter with concern. The man known publicly as Legend wasn't quite sure if he liked what was being implied. The phrase "a chance to wash clean blood stained hands with honest labor" wasn't one he relished reading.

He appreciated less what it hinted at. The man who delivered the message was not a postal carrier. He was tall, with a thick shock of wild dark blond hair. The delivery man's beard had been long and unkempt. And he had carried himself like a warrior born and bred. The nasty, if ornate, warhammer hanging from the large man's waist furthered the impression. Before the man left he had spoken briefly.

"Mine father doth suggest careful consideration of thee. Verily a chance to begin anew doth rarely avail thrice."

Legend hadn't paid much mind to the man at the time. It was only after reading the missive that he chased after the mail carrier. Only he found no signs of the man save one, a scorch marked patch of ground, as if it had been struck by lightning. Yet there were no clouds in the sky. Turning the envelope over in his hands, Legend read the return address. It appeared to be a warehouse in Brockton Bay.

"If this is a joke..."

 _ **XxXxX**_

"Shameful, to think I had hopes you would be the genuine article. I met Merlin you know. Nice man, but not too bright when it comes to who he'll teach. No, you are no mage. Although I can tell you have the potential. It's strangled by that unnatural thing inside you, but still there. If you would like I can fix that for you. No, I can tell that isn't what you desire. A pity, I shall continue looking."

The speaker was a thin, yet tall man of unknown ethnicity. At first Myrradin thought the man was European, but the accent was all wrong. And his skin was too dusky for that. In fact, it was an accent the self proclaimed wizard couldn't recognize. The Chicago cape then blinked in surprise when the man simply vanished. One second he was there, looking sadly at Myrradin. The next the street corner was empty save for a rune inscribed on the sidewalk.

 _ **XxXxX**_

Sophia scowled as she moved threw the abandoned sewer tunnels. It was hard to gather intelligence when you had to constantly avoid detection. Even so she'd managed to steal the occasional newspaper. Ever since her failed attempt to kill the blond model Sophia had been forced underground. This was both literal and figurative. But that wasn't what had her in such a foul mood at the moment. That honor went towards the news story splashed across today's front page.

Legend was coming to Brockton Bay. _Fuck,_ she thought as that fact once again slammed through her brain. Legend, what the hell was he coming here for? According to the paper he was going to be a gym teacher at some new school. Sophia didn't believe that for a second. According to the article the Wards program was being disbanded too. Again she didn't attribute any truth to that claim. Then again she also didn't believe the reports that some slip of a girl had defeated two members of the Slaughterhouse 9. Especially not the ones the girl had supposedly captured.

Also of concern was the blond tinker. And Sophia now knew for a fact the woman was a tinker. She had to be. The problem was, just what the hell was the woman's specialty? Force fields, gravity guns, flight packs, electrified nets, invisibility suits, and portable healing devices? The things the woman was known to have built were all over the place. According to one news article she'd kitbashed a single use emp generator out of a car battery and other parts, while fighting Squealer. Then there was her own latest encounter with the blonde.

It had been a stroke of luck, Sophia had thought, to encounter 'Virgo' at night in the ship graveyard. It had been a new moon, so even that light hadn't been available to hinder Sophia. Having a glass vial of what had proved to be highly acidic coffee thrown at her had been just plain weird. It had set the tone for the rest of the fight. Like before, Sophia was unable to do anything with her crossbows. Trying to fight in hand to hand had proved more effective. Even so the blond woman was far too good at fighting for Sophia's liking.

Having a dozen different weapons used against her had been annoying. None had actually worked, but the principle was still there. What made it worse was that the entire time Virgo was dictating notes on how each item had worked. Sopha had decided to retreat after a while. The angry roar heard later that night had indicated Lung was involved in a fight. But to be honest, Sophia hadn't been all that interested in finding out what was happening. Only later did she learn of Lung's capture, supposedly by Armsmaster.

 _ **Author Notes:**_

Seriously, I much prefer answering individual reviews with a private message. And I apologize for the following mini-essay. That said, feel free to skip over it. It's mainly a response to one of the guest reviewers who made comments which came across as an insult to me personally. This chapter is mostly setup. I expect I'll be following Taylor primarily in the next chapter or two. Could be wrong, but that's the intention. Anyway, on with the rant.

Peon (guest), it's true that I don't like Sophia Hess. She's a vicious little psychopath who's predator/prey mentality causes her to antagonize and brutalize everyone around her that she doesn't consider 'strong'. And her definition of "strength" is narrow. In cannon she refuses to help someone until they "prove their strength". Or in other words, she wont rescue someone unless they can fight back. How many people has she let die before 'avenging them', even though she was on the scene in time to stop the attack? The answer is likely "too damn many". Then again, you aren't suppose to like Hess either, so that works out.

That said, she isn't an idiot. Hess is just smart enough to gather followers who can protect her from the consequences of her actions. Case in point is her taking Emma Barnes under her wing. It's very doubtful this was done due to friendship. I'm unconvinced Hess understands the term. This provided her with a high priced lawyer who was readily available to ensure she didn't go to jail if she was caught. Which to me suggests she knew who Emma's father was even before the Protectorate captured her, and used that knowledge to her advantage. She's also smart enough to play Armsmaster like a fiddle. She uses his reliance on lie detectors and obsession with improving his gear to literally get away with murder. Armsmaster after all is too busy to pay any attention to what's going on with the wards, and lie detectors are famously inaccurate to the point they will tell you a plant is lying to you. Even a tinker tech one would suffer the same problems the flawed original invention did. She uses a corrupt school faculty and either corrupt or inept parole officer also to get away with bullying and other parole violations. She counted on her superior officer (armsmaster) not bothering to actually look at, let alone pass on incident reports. And it worked.

In cannon Hess bullies her team mates, especially Vista. She also regularly abandons her patrol partner, despite the fact that she's not allowed to patrol solo. She abandons her partners so she can fetch lethal ammunition and go hunting. Yet Armsmaster never once questions this, or puts two and two together to realize she's the one putting holes in criminals. Also in cannon, she puts a fellow student in the hospital with her vicious locker 'prank'. She then lays low just long enough to determine there will be no punishment before starting the bullying campaign back up.

Then there's the fact that in cannon Hess repeatedly tries to kill Grue simply because his power somehow interferes with her own. Think about that, she gets obsessively homicidal because someone can potentially affect her. And she tries to kill Taylor Hebert simply because Hebert doesn't fight back. The locker incident was an attempted murder, make no mistake about that. She locked Hebert in a locker filled with biohazards and insects which would start bite and/or eat her. It then takes the janitor investigating the smell coming from that locker before she's rescued, hours later.

How many hours? We actually don't know, but at least most of the school day. In cannon Hess may or may not have understood that she had just tried to kill Hebert. We don't really know since the story is mostly told from Hebert's point of view. The locker incident is also already in the past, we know about it due to the event being mentioned. It's doubtful that Emma and Madison realize they had just tried to kill a fellow student though. They don't come across to me as being as crazy as Sophia Hess. They come across to me more along the lines of unthinking cruelty while seeking approval. Considering Hess considers herself an apex predator, can you really not see her attacking an unknown person who's trying to help Hebert escape the locker? Especially if she'd just shoved the girl into said locker? Let alone outing herself when this unknown person proves more dangerous then initially thought? Hess is intelligent, but shows signs of not always thinking things through. If she did, she might have had an "Oh shit" moment upon realizing she's been tormenting someone who nearly killed lung.

While you didn't mention it, I will. I don't think Sophia Hess is actually that skilled of a hand to hand combatant. Good enough, yes. Received some training, yes. But I don't think she's more then a talented beginner. Since she doesn't respect her team mates, it's probable she disregarded the idea they could possibly teach her something. She relies on her shadow state for defense, and crossbows for offense. This to me doesn't scream "master of hand to hand". Thus I believe if she's not using her powers, someone who has a extensive training and a few years of practical experience in melee combat would be able to fight her off. Possibly while making it look easy. Let Hess use her shadow state however, and she is now dangerous. She can pass through her opponent's defense then go solid just long enough to hit them. And her foe couldn't do anything back unless they hit in the exact moment Hess is solid. Easier said then done.

Even so, you notice in cannon she was mainly going after normal, non-powered gang bangers. She again isn't an idiot. She likely knew on some level she was outclassed by any of the capes in the gangs. Thus why she didn't go after them. Grue is a different matter. He can interfere with her powers, so in her twisted mind this meant he had to die. Forget the rules of engagement, she never cared about those. Forget honor, she likely doesn't understand the concept. And she felt confident in her self imposed task to murder Grue because she believes she can't be caught by the Protectorate or PRT. Which to be fair, in cannon she was able to avoid suspicion from them until Grue showed the scars from her using hunting bolts to Armsmaster. Even then, Armsmaster was more focused on covering his own ass from trying to kill villains off in an Endbringer fight.

Again, I realize Hess isn't a "brain damaged idiot" as you seem to think I consider her. What she is, is a psychopath who murderously obsesses over perceived slights against her. Grue's ability to interfere with her powers is viewed as a personal attack. Having someone not only thwart her, but bring her crimes to the attention of the PRT? That I believe Hess would consider a slight worthy of killing over. Then again, she tries to kill criminals simply because they are breathing too. But still, she's not stupid. Hess's plan to make Swan and Hebert out to be dangerous parahumans who attacked students could easily have worked. Especially if she was relaying her tale to Armsmaster.

At least, it could have worked if there hadn't been video of her attacking from behind and she implemented the plan before Swan had spoken with the PRT, let alone doctors examining Hebert and finding evidence of multiple old injuries which had to heal on their own. The journal Hebert had kept didn't help her case either, which I could see Hebert mentioning in the few minutes before she went catatonic from sensory overload. A journal which her father was able to supply after knowing about it. The very fact she figured out a way past Swan's security measures though is an indication of how intelligent she is, when she applies herself. As is the fact that as of current events in the story... Hess is still at large.


	13. The Academy Chapter Three

**Tinkering with Fate**

"What in Tesla's name were you thinking?!"

Taylor stood before her mentor and shuffled her feet nervously. Admittedly the previous night had not been her best idea. The costume had been made in secret. Then she'd slipped out of the house for a first patrol. Taylor hadn't even picked a hero name yet. She'd expected to stop a gas station robbery, maybe a mugging or two. What she had not expected was to run into Lung. Even so, she'd done better then expected. By that one would mean that Taylor had survived the encounter. As well as the subsequent meeting with a quartet of teens she only belatedly realized were super villains.

Meeting Armsmaster after that, well, it could have gone better. The man was an ass pure and simple. Her own embarrassment over owning Armsmaster underwear didn't help at all. The news about a bomb tinker who was part of the ABB though? That was terrifying. The idea of attracting that sort of attention was why she'd agreed to let Armsmaster take the credit. She did warn the armored man about the various toxins she'd flooded Lung with. But now Swan was here, scolding Taylor for her recklessness.

"I heard him. He was going after _kids_!" Taylor tried to explain.

Swan didn't seem very sympathetic. "And you did not even once consider calling for backup? You didn't assess the situation. And you certainly didn't account for the fact Lung has fought a creature you call an 'endbringer' to a stand still, on his own. Unless you are in Mister E's league, you go into battle with such threats with a competent team. Preferably one with many heavy hitters. You were lucky last night. Such rookie mistakes get yourself and others killed."

Swan then went on to list the many many tactical mistakes which had been made. How did she even know about them? Because Susan Swan had suspected Taylor would pull something like this, and had a holographic camera following her young protege. And if there hadn't been an situation involving Uber and Leet on the other end of town then she would have raced to provide assistance the second an alert signal had been sent. Even so Swan had alerted the Protectorate. The fact they sent only one man to deal with Lung sat poorly with her.

"It's clear you are too impatient to wait until you are ready. Although I mist admit your uniform has interesting design ideas. I will assist you in designing a new uniform. One that wont immediately get you labeled as a criminal regardless of your actions. Oh and Taylor..."

The mortified girl asked "Yes?"

"You _will_ be joining the academy in the fall. Since you clearly wish to follow through with this foolishness, I insist on you learning how to do so properly. It's not just your own life you are putting on the line. Until then you will only patrol when accompanied by myself. Is that clear?"

Taylor was torn between grinning and cringing. On the one hand she was going to be patrolling. On the other hand, she was in trouble with someone Taylor genuinely liked and respected. The Protectorate and PRT had lost her respect. They couldn't even keep one crazy teen who wanted Taylor dead off the streets after all. Hell, the villain team she'd inadvertently helped last night almost seemed a better option then trusting the PRT and Protectorate. The angry glare made up her mind, it was time to cringe.

"Yes Doctor Swan."

With that Swan left the Hebert home. Her father wasn't home yet, not that she spoke with him much these days. Ever since her trigger the two had been drifting even further apart. He knew about her powers, yet not what she'd been intending to do with them. According to her father her powers were best used making money as a pest control specialist. He didn't understand why Taylor felt she needed to be a Hero. Then again, she hadn't actually tried to explain things to him. Still, the question remained that Taylor didn't know what to do about a post she'd found on Parahuman Online.

Which opened up a whole new can of worms. That thought did make the girl snicker a little. With her powers the phrase had a far more literal meaning possible. If he knew what she really wanted, Danny Hebert would be marching her down to the PRT building and signing her up as a ward. The very idea of working with people who condoned what she'd gone through however was enough to make Taylor's stomach turn. It was why she'd jumped at Swan's offer to teach her control. The tutoring in science didn't hurt either.

 _I wonder what ever happened to Emma?_ Taylor thought as she started preparing supper.

 _ **XxXxX**_

The Chicago PRT building was not the sort of place one would picture a budding model hanging out. Unless the budding model was named Emma Barnes that is. She had powers, that much was clear as day. Yet as far as anyone could tell, they weren't something useful in combat. The teenager in question had initially only been known to glow rather brightly when around another parahuman. How bright she glowed was directly proportional to how close she was, with a range of about a hundred feet. Not a very useful thing for patrolling.

Only later did Emma accidentally discover the other aspect of her power. That was when she swapped Weld's power with one of the local Protectorate members. The good news was that this had allowed pictures of Weld's natural face to be taken and a search for his identity to be initiated. The bad news was that neither Weld nor Thundart could actually control the other's powers. Fortunately the switch wore off after ten minutes. Even so Emma wasn't allowed to touch any parahuman without their express permission now.

She'd also been forced to wear a hideous full body suit, complete with elbow length gloves. From what the other wards had said, it was based on something worn in an Earth Alph comic and movie. Since then she'd been put to work screening visitors to the PRT building for unknown parahumans. While that was against the 'unwritten rules' her supposed team mates had informed Emma about, the PRT didn't seem to care as long as Emma's glowing like a lightbulb improved the building's security.

Today was looking to be yet another boring day. So she was working on homework, not really paying attention. When a blue haired woman, more of a teenager really, entered the building Emma didn't even notice. The woman had cuffs around her wrists, with the reason why being shown when Thundart marched in after the woman, his hand crackling with electricity. This Emma noticed as she once more started glowing an annoyingly bright shade of pink. She could hear the blue haired girl speaking too.

"Chill out, I said I'd come willingly. Shit. If this is how you assholes react to someone putting out a house fire and rescuing civilians it's a fucking miracle anyone actually signs up. If I didn't know any better I'd think you worked for a fucking criminal. Hell, did you have to make the restraints so damn tight? I can't fucking feel my fingers."

The blue haired woman then changed into living ice in a burst of intense cold. Following that she casually ripped the handcuffs apart and pealed the remains off. This act caused Thundart to fire off the electric bolt he'd held at the ready. The unknown girl casually dodged it, then cursed upon noticing the bolt was going to hit the large mirror. Behind said mirror, Emma found herself paralyzed as the electricity arced towards her. She'd seen those bolts cut through steel, a little one way glass was not going to even slow it down. Time seemed to slow down as her impending death marched ever closer.

Only for a block of ice to have formed directly in the path of the electric bolt. While Emma didn't see it, the ice was angled and managed to barely deflect the electricity into the floor. The blue haired woman then angrily turned towards Thundart. With the danger past, Emma slumped to the ground. She could hear a woman chewing Thundart out for nearly killing her. Suddenly Emma had a whole new appreciation for what she'd been putting her best friend through. Taylor took everything and kept going. But her? She wasn't as strong as she'd thought.

From outside her booth Emma heard the unknown woman. "You reckless asshole! You could have killed someone with that! You call your self a hero?! What the hell do you think would have happened to whoever is behind that window? You ALWAYS check your line of fire! Especially when using potentially lethal force! Why the fucking hell did you even fire a blast that fucking strong anyway? You're damn lucky I've had experience with electrical projectors!"

After that she slipped unconscious so she didn't notice her glowing stop when Thundart left the immediate area in a huff. Nor did she notice him limping slightly due to favoring his left leg. The camera in her alcove however did catch this fact. Later review of the footage would cause an uproar. But Emma didn't know this. Nor would she have cared if she did know. Another thing she didn't know was just how close she really had come to dying.

 _ **XxXxX**_

 _Elsewhere_

"Doth thou truly believe them capable?" A burly man asked his companion.

The man was large, nearly seven feet tall. His broad shoulders and bulging muscles spoke of long practice with the heavy warhammer at his waist. He wore scale mail which had been fitted to him personally. It looked expensive even without knowing the materials which had gone into it's manufacture. Let alone the one who had done the forging. The man had flowing blond hair and a rough, unkept beard which reached his collarbone. And when he spoke the man's voice was rich and booming.

"Of course, Thor." The companion said. "You yourself have seen what they're capable of. And remember, they are lead by one who has faced my father and lived. Nay, not just lived but triumphed. With them to guide the heroes of this realm, they stand a chance. Mayhap not a great one, but then neither did the odds favor them against the Devourer of All."

The man named Thor chuckled. "There doth be truth to thine words, friend Enki. How goith thy search? Mine own hath been concluded."

Enki sighed. "Not well I'm afraid. The parasite has infected everyone with talent I have found. And none would forsake it's tainted gifts for a more pure source of ability. Is your brother still intent on that rabbit foolishness?"

Thor thought for a moment before answering his skinny friend. "Aye, Loki doth plan to revive the Beach Bunny squad. A most amusing yet effective jest, was it not?"

Enki laughed. "I'll admit to that. Especially your champion coming after you when he realized it had been a practical joke. How did he force you into that dress anyway?"

Thor shuddered upon remembering that particular event. "None of thy business. Have yea seen the women?"

Enki thought a moment then sighed again. "Not really. I know Ishtar is out there, as is Aphrodite. But what they are doing I have no idea. Ishtar said something about finding the perfect mortal champion. I think Aphrodite is looking for the parasite. But you know her, she could just as easily be in Hollywood sleeping with the movie stars or seducing some hero instead."

 **Author Notes:**

Thundart... Well, I needed a Protectorate member name. I envision him as being a flier who can fire electric bolts. These bolts can cut through up to an inch of steel, if it's not grounded. So how did the ice block stop this electric bolt? By using the same physics tank armor does. By angling the surface, it becomes harder to penetrate. This is why tank armor in World War 2 was typically angular. A flat surface lets all the kinetic energy hit, while an angled one will at least partly deflect the kinetic energy.

"But wait!" I hear you cry, "Electricity isn't the same thing as a large caliber bullet!" And your right, the ice would be melted from the heat of the strike, thus requiring the ice generator to constantly replace what just got melted. As I see it though, the melt water would aid in channeling the electricity down towards the ground. And it wasn't a sustained stream, but a single short burst. Even so, as mentioned in the story... the bolt was BARELY deflected. As in it almost did manage to get through, and it was only due to prior experience that it was stopped. There was likely only a millimeter of ice left on the edge closest to Emma by the time the electric bolt had been stopped.

As for Sorrow (guest)'s review, I'm unable to find any definitive timelines for exactly when Director Piggot took control of the wards away from Armsmaster in cannon. I'm tempted to say this was after his misdeeds and Hess's actions came to light post Leviathan attack. It doesn't really make much sense to me otherwise that she got caught flat footed by the situation with Shadow Stalker. If Piggot or someone she actually trusts was receiving the reports, I can't see her leaving Hess on the Wards team. Not with Piggot's known bias against parahumans. She comes across to me as someone who wants parahumans to screw up so she can throw the book at them.

I think Piggot would use the incident reports involving Hess doing unauthorized solo patrols and complaints about bullying, not to mention the criminals being found with 'unexplained' holes in them, to lock Hess up. So it only makes sense at the time of the locker incident Armsmaster was still fully in charge of the Wards program, and doing a bad job of it. But of course, you notice in this story he loses that position when it comes to light just how little attention he's paying to the Wards. So my take is that while the reports had been submitted, they hadn't actually been forwarded to Piggot until she started to dig into the issue with Swan's arrival and video of Hess's outing herself to attack someone else. Why? Because Armsmaster was the one who should have been forwarding them, and he never even noticed the large number of incident reports due to being too busy tinkering with his gear.


	14. The Academy Chapter Four

**Tinkering with Fate**

The red haired woman was obviously oriental. This despite her hair's color was clear to anyone who saw her. Her choice of clothing was unusual to say the least. A hot pink mini-skirt with a hot pink hello kitty belly tee was not what people would expect a cape to wear. The fact she wore no mask was equally unusual. How did onlookers know she was a cape? It wasn't too difficult. The woman was running along the top of a fences at speeds normally reserved for motorized transportation. That, and she was jumping across streets like they were merely a couple inches wide.

The woman wore wooden bracers on her wrists and kung fu slippers on her feet. And as she ran towards the city's local PRT branch she had a grim expression. It was one which observers noted looked out of place on her. As if she was normally cheerful and upbeat. Several people recorded her passage. Later that day there would be dozens of threads on Parahumans Online speculating about her identity and allegiance. Only later would astute individuals notice the badge clipped to her waist. A badge which contained a shield surrounding the letters FS. This detail would set off another round of speculation.

The woman didn't know about any of this though. Nor would she have cared if she did know. She was on a mission, one she considered important. Cries for help however caused her to deviate from her previous trajectory. Quickly the woman zeroed in on the source of the cry. An alleyway, and within it a middle aged woman was being held down by three men. The victim's blouse was already torn, which spurred the red haired lass into action. The battle, if one could call it such, was one sided and only lasted a few seconds. The red head then searched the three men until she found a cell phone.

Quickly dialing 911, she spoke. "I'm in the alley between fifth and Lincon, southern side. Send police and an ambulance. There was an attempted rape. I'm Knight Mare, doubt ya heard of me. I'm new in town. Of course I'll stick around and give a statement. What kind of hero just takes off without making sure everything is handled?"

Three hours later Knight Mare found herself in an ostentatious building. Just the lobby alone spoke of power and money. Not due to having expensive art, but due to the amounts of advanced tech that was everywhere. This was the local PRT building, the place she'd been heading to originally. After seeing a news article announcing the capture of a powerful criminal named Lung she'd realized the timetable had just moved up. The team had arrived in this world scattered all over the place. But that was in large part due to the way they came here.

The intention had been for each of them to spend a few months exploring this world. That would give them time to learn investigate what was going on. After all, when beings who can rightly be called gods ask you for help, you know something bad is going on. Then the Freedom Society members would link up with Virgo to determine what exactly needed to be done. This plan had been made before knowing exactly how much of a powder keg they were entering. Before they knew just how precariously the situation was balanced.

Or that it was all centered around one dying city. News of Virgo starting up the Freedom Academy in this world had been what initially started drawing the team towards Brockton Bay. Something like that, that brought hope? Research had shown it inevitably meant a disaster occurring in that area. And preventing such events was what the Freedom Society did best. While Knight Mare hadn't been with the Society as long as her partner, she'd still helped with plenty of nasty situations. Even before that though she'd dealt with her fair share of walking disasters. Some might have considered herself one of them too.

Finally a stern looking woman in a business suit approached the young looking heroine. "I understand you are here for power testing?"

Mare snorted at the other woman's words. "Ain't got powers. Everything I do is earned. I'm called Knight Mare. Only agreed to this 'test' cause I need ta reach Brockton Bay soon."

The other woman snorted in disbelief. "Suure, and next I suppose you'll claim you know magic."

Knight Mare shook her head. People always assumed she must be a metahuman. The idea that insane training methods could make someone the equal of a metahuman was always scoffed at. And most people disregarded magic, believing it to be just another metahuman power people only think is magic. Yet she knew better. She'd had dealings with real magic for years. And if there was one thing Knight Mare had learned, it was that magic was a pain in the ass. Even when it was used for your benefit, it tended to get real annoying real fast. Such as her costume, one that Mare would never have worn if she wasn't forced to do so.

"Oh, magic is very real. Trust me on this. And very dangerous even if ya know whatcha doing. I try not to mess with it.

XxXxX

Susan Swan disliked giving interviews. While she realized it was a necessary evil, there were plenty of things that would be a more productive use of her time. These ranged in priority and importance. From putting together a lesson plan to patrolling the streets to working on her latest idea. And yet here she was, sitting in a mildly uncomfortable chair and facing a reporter. Miss Day wasn't a bad reporter. Nor was this interview in it's self a bad thing. In fact Swan herself had agreed it needed to be done.

The problem was that there were too many other things that needed to be done too. Aside from the fact that the Swantech building was still being rebuilt, Susan needed to repair her flight pack. It had been damaged by a teleporting madman the previous night. And yet this interview needed to happen. She'd realized this after analyzing the impact of recent news stories. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of fear and misinformation floating about. A group called the Youth Guard were even raising a stink about the Freedom Academy. Which was why she was here tonight.

It was also why she hadn't even brought a tool belt along. Tonight was about putting a good face forward and being approachable. Wearing her work cloths, either set, was not something which could be construed as 'approachable'. It was a risk to be sure. Yet in this world, not as great as a risk as it should have been. The so called 'unwritten rules' made it possible to have a civilian life even if you had a public identity. Yet Swan didn't rely on this. While she didn't hide her identity, she generally didn't go out of her way to advertise it either.

"Good evening Miss Day," Swan said as she sat down in the offered chair.

The reporter replied with "And good evening to you Miss Swan. Thank you for consenting to this interview."

What followed was three of the most exhausting hours Swan could ever think of. The questions were all over the place. They touched on the her former world, the Freedom Society, and from there moved on to the Freedom Academy. Swan also answered questions regarding Swantech and her actions as a costumed crime fighter since arriving in Earth Bet. She also spoke at length on her views regarding how the Protectorate and PRT operated. As she talked Susan realized this was a good idea for more reasons then she'd originally thought. She realized she still hadn't worked through what had happened that forced her to flee to this dimension.

"You've in the past mentioned a disdain for respecting the civilian identities of capes, why is that?" Miss Day asked towards the end of the interview.

Swan sighed. "That's not entirely true. As I have said in the past, there are legitimate reasons for a hero to keep their identity a secret. It provides a level of safety to the hero's friends and family. It also allows a chance to decompress. Make no mistakes, being a hero is stressful. You risk your life on a regular basis, all too often facing things which strain your sanity. Can you imagine putting yourself through that, and then never having a moment to relax?

"Heroes with a public identity are always on the job. They usually can't relax, and they can't have a social life. Paparazzi wont allow it. Criminals wont allow it. And most especially, their fans don't allow it. You see the results of being on display twenty four hours a day seven days a week with movie stars and famous musicians. How many snap, turn to drugs, or otherwise end up self destructing? Then add in the sometimes daily battles with the criminal element. It's a recipe for disaster.

"Pancreas is a good example of how stressful the costumed life is. While she doesn't fight criminals, that poor girl is under constant pressure to heal people. Anyone with eyes can see the strain she is under. What's more, it isn't hard to see signs that she's fast approaching her limits. That's one reason why I've been pushing to develop and license medical technology which can ease her workload. And from what I've seen the rest of New Wave aren't much better off. They're suffering from a range of stress induced problems. The majority of heroes need time to themselves with no pressure or responsibility in order to deal with the things they see on a day to day basis."

"I notice you only mentioned heroes," Miss Day commented. "Is there a reason behind that?"

Susan nodded and spoke again. "Yes, there is. Your world treats everything as if it's the children's game of Cops and Robbers. Somewhere along the line you forgot just how deadly serious this so-called game really is. You forgot just how high the stakes are. When criminal gangs are allowed to control a city such as in Brockton Bay the inevitable result is the complete collapse of that city's infrastructure. When rampaging monsters such as the slaughterhouse nine, The Teeth, and Nilbog allowed to roam unchecked, it's inevitable that society as a whole will eventually collapse. In truth, Brockton Bay as it stands is an allegory for the entire world.

"And the first step to solving this problem is to understand one simple fact. Criminals gave up their right to a secret identity. Kaiser for instance clearly has access to a lot of money. And he needs means to funnel it into seemingly legitimate accounts. By not tracking down who this racist madman is people are enabling him to continue his hate campaign. Or how about Coil. Nobody knows exactly who Coil is. But it's obvious this criminal has access to vast resources. So why aren't those resources being taken away? If you don't allow a normal rapist or murderer's identity to remain an enigma, why do you allow them to remain an unknown entity if they wear a mask?"

"Don't you consider the Endbringers a threat?" Miss Day asked, knowing it likely would be the last question in the interview.

"Yes, the so-called endbringers are threats. But that's because nobody has tried to find who is generating them. Before you ask, yes I'll explain. There is no evidence of an endbringer's existence until the moment it first appears. Think about that for a moment. There's no vector for their arrival. One second there were no endbringers, the next the one called Behemoth was detected moving through the earth. Where did it come from? Why was there no signs of it's existence before it's first appearance, when it's possible to track it's movements?

"And most especially, why is it nothing actually affects them? No amount of damage dealt to an endbringer to date has actually hampered it in any way. Despite the apparent damage taken, they show the same traits as the projection known as The Siberian. I can see the question in your eyes. And yes, evidence suggests that the Siberian is what your world calls a projection. I've met people with true invulnerability, and they are still affected by many things. Another clue is in how the Siberian has been known to reappear completely unharmed after being buried, without having to dig it's self out. Since teleportation is not one of the entity's abilities, that leaves only one conclusion, does it not?"

"That's fascinating," Miss Day said. "It has been quite illuminating having you here tonight. Thank you for your time Miss Swan."

With that the cameras stopped recording. Swan stood and shook her hostess's hand before making her way out to the parking lot. The interview had been more draining then she'd thought it would be. Ruefully Swan admitted to herself that press conferences and interviews always were more draining then you expected. It was just the nature of the beast after all. Once she left the building it's self Susan turned towards her rather run down van. Not the sort of car one would expect a genius to drive. Then again, most of her finances had been going towards building several inventions and getting a business started up. And now repairing the building said business was housed in.

A soft, barely audible twang was the first hint of danger. Susan dove to the side, yet sharpened metal and wood pierced her thigh Luckily it missed the artery. The next one impacted in Swan's shoulder. A shadowy form could be seen moving in the parking garage, deftly avoiding areas where a light was shining. This told the inventor her assailant feared the light for some reason. Either in a desire to maintain anonymity or because it provided a limiting factor. Based on the obvious use of two crossbows Susan deduced it was the second reason.

Reaching into her purse, Susan retrieved her car keys and hit a button. This caused the van's lights to turn on, bathing the area in illumination. A second button caused the head lights to switch to high beams, making the area even brighter and dispelling shadows. The abrupt change in ambient lighting momentarily blinded her attacker, causing the other person to drop their weapons. The fact the still shadowy form wasn't moving to pick them up again was interesting to Susan. In fact, the only movement the living shadow made was sinking into the ground. _So, Shadow Stalker is likely immobilized by light. That would explain the way she fought in my workshop._

Realizing she was bleeding badly, Swan dialed 911.


End file.
